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Gender differences in coping mechanisms of preschool children and relation to cognitive and social emotional level
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Abstract(s)
Os mecanismos de coping em crianças são um construto que tem sido definido e estudado de variadas formas por diferentes autores. Faz parte do conceito de autorregulação das emoções e envolve os conceitos psicológicos relacionados à competência social, habilidades e autorregulação do comportamento. A investigação não é conclusiva, existindo diversas perspetivas em relação aos mecanismos de coping tendo em conta o género e qual a relação do nível socioeconómico da família. De igual forma, a investigação aponta em diversos sentidos em relação aos mecanismos de coping e às habilidades cognitivas e sociais das crianças. A presente investigação pretende compreender se existem diferenças na forma como as crianças de quatro anos lidam com diferentes situações tendo em conta o género e o nível socioeconómico da família, tendo em consideração as suas habilidades cognitivas e sociais e o nível de escolaridade dos pais.
Os nossos participantes são crianças de quatro anos de idade que frequentam uma creche em Miami no estado da Florida nos Estados Unidos da América. O material usado foi o Ages and Stages Questionnaire, o Ages and Stages Social emotional Questionnaire, o Voluntary Prekindergaraten Assessment, as Coping Cards, o Socio-Demographic Questionnaire e Emotions with Emojis Lesson.
Quanto ao procedimento foram entregues os consentimentos informados aos pais e explicado os procedimentos. Logo a seguir a devolução dos consentimentos informados, foram aplicadas as provas e questionários as crianças e analisado os resultados.
Os resultados deste estudo não demonstram diferenças de género estatisticamente significativas nos mecanismos de coping que as crianças usam. Isto pode ser devido a ferramenta utilizada ou a idade da amostra. Investigações futuras poderão focar-se na construção de uma ferramenta de avaliação adaptada para a população específica deste projeto. Existem diferenças significativas positivas entre os resultados do VPK Oral Language assessment e o coping focado nas emoções e uma correlação negativa entre o VPK Oral Language assessment e o coping focado nos problemas. A par, o coping como construto, deverá ser operacionalizado para incluir os conceitos de emoção e coping focado no problema, assim como estratégias de abordagem e evitamento.
Coping mechanisms in children is a construct that has been defined and studied several ways by different authors. It is part of the concept of self-regulation of emotions and it involves the complex psychological concepts related to social competence, skills and behavior management. There are mixed findings regarding the mechanisms children use in coping with regards to gender and with regards to the family’s social-economic status. There are also mixed findings regarding coping mechanisms and children’s cognitive and social abilities. Most studies only include children in middle childhood or the ages after preschool and before adolescence. The few studies that have included preschool age children have done so for the 5 and six year olds but minimal attention has been paid to four year olds and how they cope. The studies have also been done using a variety of tools, but no one has had consistent results regarding problem or emotion focused coping. This research project tried to answer if there are differences in the way four year old children cope taking into consideration their gender, cognitive and social abilities and their parents’ level of schooling. It used the Age and Stages questionnaire, the Ages and Stages Social Emotional questionnaire, the Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten Assessment tool, a socio-demographic questionnaire and the Coping Cards tool. Results of this project have yielded no statistically significant differences in coping mechanisms children use. This could be due to the fact that the instrument to assess coping strategy was created for a culturally, linguistically and socio-economic population different than the one used in this project. Future research needs to be focused in creating an assessment tool tailored for this project’s specific population. There is a statistically significant positive correlation between the VPK Oral Language scores and children’s emotion focused coping. There is also a statistically significant negative correlation between the VPK Oral Language scores and children’s problem focused coping. Furthermore, the construct of coping needs to be operationalized to include the concepts of emotion and problem focused coping, and approach and avoidance strategies.
Coping mechanisms in children is a construct that has been defined and studied several ways by different authors. It is part of the concept of self-regulation of emotions and it involves the complex psychological concepts related to social competence, skills and behavior management. There are mixed findings regarding the mechanisms children use in coping with regards to gender and with regards to the family’s social-economic status. There are also mixed findings regarding coping mechanisms and children’s cognitive and social abilities. Most studies only include children in middle childhood or the ages after preschool and before adolescence. The few studies that have included preschool age children have done so for the 5 and six year olds but minimal attention has been paid to four year olds and how they cope. The studies have also been done using a variety of tools, but no one has had consistent results regarding problem or emotion focused coping. This research project tried to answer if there are differences in the way four year old children cope taking into consideration their gender, cognitive and social abilities and their parents’ level of schooling. It used the Age and Stages questionnaire, the Ages and Stages Social Emotional questionnaire, the Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten Assessment tool, a socio-demographic questionnaire and the Coping Cards tool. Results of this project have yielded no statistically significant differences in coping mechanisms children use. This could be due to the fact that the instrument to assess coping strategy was created for a culturally, linguistically and socio-economic population different than the one used in this project. Future research needs to be focused in creating an assessment tool tailored for this project’s specific population. There is a statistically significant positive correlation between the VPK Oral Language scores and children’s emotion focused coping. There is also a statistically significant negative correlation between the VPK Oral Language scores and children’s problem focused coping. Furthermore, the construct of coping needs to be operationalized to include the concepts of emotion and problem focused coping, and approach and avoidance strategies.
Description
Keywords
Coping focado na emoção Coping focado no problema Cartões de coping Regulação emocional Regulação do comportamento Emotion focused coping Problem focused coping Coping cards Emotion regulation Behavior management