DESCRIBING BOYS COPING WITH HOMESICKNESS USING A 2-PROCESS MODEL OF CONTROL

Previous research on children's coping suggests two theoretically impo rtant trends: (1) Age-related increases in secondary control coping (i .e., adjusting oneself to fit objective conditions), but not in primar y control coping (i.e., modifying objective conditions to fit oneself) ; and (2) More frequent use of secondary control with relatively uncon trollable stressors than with controllable stressors. This study exami ned both age and stressor controllability as predictors of how boys co ped with two common stressors in a residential summer camp setting: Ho mesickness (in the context of a relatively uncontrollable separation) and competitive loss (in the context of a relatively controllable game or match). Older boys used more secondary control coping for the obje ctively uncontrollable stressor of homesickness, but not for the more controllable stressor of competitive loss. The finding suggests key ag e-related gains in the capacity to tailor coping responses to stressor characteristics.