Coping styles and strategies: a comparison of adolescent students with and without learning disabilities

In this study, the authors compared the results of a coping measure completed by 98 seventh through ninth grade students who were assessed as having learning disabilities with published means from the general Australian student population. The Adolescent Coping Scale was the measure used. The results suggested higher use by students aged 12 to 13 years who had learning disabilities of an overall nonproductive coping style and in particular of the nonproductive strategies of ignoring the problem and not coping. Although there was no difference in overall productive or nonproductive coping style for 14- to 15-year-olds, the students in this age group who had learning disabilities reported higher use of the strategies of not coping and ignoring the problem. These findings are discussed in relation to a need for interventions that give students who have learning disabilities strategies that address the risk of a passive coping style.