Abstract
The present study describes the development of a self-report measure of coping with school failure for children and adolescents. A list of 56 items had been collected in the sample of 142 subjects aged from 9 to 18 years. The items were administered to 500 elementary and high school students. Factor analysis of the data produced seven coping strategies: Anger, Accepting Responsibility, Comfort and Forgetting, Seeking Social Support, Parents, Inadequate Reactions, and Disengagement. Internal consistencies were in the .59 to .76 range.
Significant age effects were found for Accepting Responsibility, Comfort and Forgetting, and Parents, indicating that elementary school children, compared to high school students, accept greater responsibility, try harder to forget and take comfort, and seek help more from their parents. Significant gender effects were found for Accepting Responsibility, Seeking Social Support, and Inadequate Reactions, indicating that girls accept greater responsibility, more often use social support, and have fewer inadequate reactions than boys.
Overall pattern of results also suggests that high achievers use more positive coping strategies (mainly accepting responsibility) and less negative strategies (anger, inadequate reactions and disengagement) than low or average achievers.
Résumé
L’étude décrit la construction d’un questionnaire permettant d’évaluer le mode de rapport d’enfants et d’adolescents à l’échec scolaire. 56 items ont été retenus à partir d’un échatillon de 142 sujets de 9 à 18 ans. Les items ont ensuite été administré à 500 élèves d’école élémentaire et et de lycée. L’analyse factorielle des donnés a permis de dégager sept stratégies d’affrontement: révolte, acceptation de la responsabilité, consolation et oubli, recherche de soutien social, parents, réactions inadéquates et désengagement. Les consistances internes varient de .59 à 76. On observe des effets significatifs de l’âge pour «acceptation de la responsabilité», «consolation et oubli» et «parents». Ces effets montrent que, comparés aux élèves de lycées, les enfants d’école élémentaire s’attribuent une plus grande responsabilité, essaient davantage d’oublier et de se consoler et recherchent plus d’aide de leurs parents. On observe aussi des effets significatifs du sexe des élèves pour l’acceptation de responsabilité, la recherche de soutien social et ont moins de réactions inadéquates que les garçons. L’ensemble des résultats suggère également que les élèves réussissant bien utilisent plus de stratégies positives d’affrontement (principalement acceptation de la responsabilité) et moins de stratégies négatives (révolte, réactions inadéquates et désengagement) que les élèves moyens ou faibles
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Band, E.B., & Weisz, J.R. (1988). How to feel better when it feels bad: Children’s perspectives on coping with everyday stress.Developmental Psychology, 24, 247–253.
Billings, A.G., & Moos, R.H. (1981). The role of coping responses and social resources in attenuating the stress of life events.Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 4, 139–157.
Brodzinsky, D.M., Elias, M.J., Steiger, C., Simon, J., Gill, M., & Hitt, J.C. (1992). Coping scale for children and youth: Scale development and validation.Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 13, 195–214.
Cattell, R.B. (1978).The science use of factor analysis in behavioral and life sciences. New York: Plenum Press.
Causey, D.L., & Dubow, E.F. (1992). Development of a self-report coping measure for elementary school children.Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 21, 47–59.
Compas, B.E., Malcarne, V.L., & Fondacaro, K.M. (1988). Coping With Stressful Events in Older Children and Young Adolescents.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56, 405–411.
Copeland, E.P., & Hess, R.S. (1995). Differences in young adolescents’ coping strategies based on gender and ethnicity.Journal of Early Adolescence, 15, 203–219.
Croake, J.W., & Knox, F.H. (1971). A second look at adolescent fears.Adolescence, 6, 279–284.
Curry, S.L., & Russ, S.W. (1985). Identifying coping strategies in children.Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 14, 61–69.
Diener, C.I., & Dweck, C.S. (1978). An analysis of learned helplessness: Continuous changes in performance, strategy, and achievement cognitions following failure.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 451–462.
Dubow, E.F., Schmidt, D., McBride, J.M., Edwards, S., & Merk, L. (1993). Teaching children to cope with stressful experiences: Initial implementation and evaluation of a primary prevention program.Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 22, 428–440.
Dusenburg, L., & Albee, G.W. (1988). Primary prevention of anxiety disorders. In C.G. Last & M. Hersen (Eds.),Handbook of anxiety disorders (pp. 571–583). New York: Pergamon Press.
Dweck, C.S., & Leggett, E.L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality.Psychological Review, 95, 1–18.
Ebata, A.T., & Moos, R.H. (1994). Personal, situational, and contextual correlates of coping in adolescence.Journal of Research on Adolescence, 4, 99–125.
Endler, N.S., & Parker, J.D.A. (1990). Multidimensional assessment of coping: A critical evaluation.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 844–854.
Folkman, S. (1984). Personal control and stress and coping processes: A theoretical analysis.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 839–852.
Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R.S. (1980). An analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sample.Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 21, 219–239.
Frydenberg, E., & Lewis, R. (1991). How adolescents cope with different concerns: The development of the Adolescent Coping Checklist (ACC).Psychological Test Bulletin, Australian Council for Educational Research, November.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Halstead, M., Johnson, S.B., & Cunningham, W. (1993). Measuring coping in adolescents: An application of the ways of coping checklist.Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 22, 337–344.
Hamilton, S., & Fagot, B.I. (1988). Chronic stress and coping styles: A comparison of male and female undergraduates.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 819–823.
Irion, J.C., & Blanchard-Fields, F. (1987). Cross-sectional comparison of adaptive coping in adulthood.Journal of Gerontology, 42, 502–504.
Mantzicopoulos, P. (1990). Coping with school failure: Characteristics of students employing successful and unsuccessful coping strategies.Psychology in the Schools, 27, 138–143.
Moos, R.H. (1990).Coping responses inventory manual. Palo Alto: Stanfor University and Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Oláh, A. (1995). Coping Strategies among adolescents: A cross-cultural study.Journal of Adolescence, 18, 491–512.
Patterson, J.M., & McCubbin, H.I. (1987). Adolescent coping style and behaviors: conceptualisation and measurement.Journal of Adolescence, 10, 163–186.
Pearlin, L.I., & Schooler, C. (1978). The structure of coping.Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 19, 21.
Plante, T.G., Goldfarb, L.P., & Wadley, V. (1993). Are stress and coping associated with aptitude and achievement testing performance among children? A preliminary investigation.Journal of School Psychology, 31, 259–266.
Sarason, I.G., & Sarason, B.R. (1981). Teaching cognitive and social skills to high school students.Journal of Consulting and clinical Psychology, 49, 908–918.
Spirito, A., Stark, L.J., & Williams C. (1988). Development of a brief coping checklist for use with pediatric populations.Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 13, 555–574.
Tero, P.F., & Connol, P.J. (1984).When children think they’ve failed; An academic coping inventory. Unpublished manuscript. University of Rochester.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rijavec, M., Brdar, I. Coping with school failure: Development of the school failure coping scale. Eur J Psychol Educ 12, 37–49 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172868
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172868