COPING IN THE CONTEXT OF THE FAMILY - ACT IVE AND AVOIDANT STRATEGIESOF ADOLESCENTS OF DIVORCE

Studies on children's response to divorce have mainly emphasized negat ive psychological sequalae such as poor social adjustment and emotiona l disorders. In many studies children's coping strategies were importa nt moderator variables. In a meta-analysis, SULS and FLETCHER (1985) f ound better short-term outcomes related to avoidant coping. On the lon g run, however, active strategies were better off. To date, little is known about family climate influences on adolsecents' coping. In the c urrent study, 128 children (62 girls, 66 boys) from German middle clas s families were observed 6 months, 1, 2, and 7 years after the divorce of their parents. At the time of divorce their mean age was 14,8 year s (SD = 2,5). The models presented in this article are based on 39 ado lescents (17 girls, 22 boys) for whom complete data were available. Th e study relates adolescents' coping strategies to measures of family f unctioning, as assessed through Family Environment Scale (Moos 1974). Coping strategies were assessed by Ways of Coping (LAZARUS 1980), Impa ct of Event Scale (HOROWITZ 1979), and Stressverarbeitungs-Fragebogen (JANKE 1985). Results, analyzed with LISREL models, indicate that supp ortive family climate, operationalized by openness and control, are go od cumulative predictors for active coping. In a second model constrai ning family climates predicts avoidant coping in adolescents. Clinical implications are discussed.