Coping responses of adolescents with and without mild learning handicaps

Five sentence completion stems about coping were administered to 60 adolescents (30 learning handicapped [mean IQ = 76], 30 nonhandicapped). Content analysis revealed that sources of everyday stress fell into four categories that reflected developmental concerns: frustrated efforts, direct conflict, social injustice, and performance issues. Coping responses were initially coded as active or passive and then further subcategorized into more specific coping behaviors. Analysis indicated that students with learning handicaps did not report any instances of performance issues as a source of stress and gave more passive coping responses than did students who were not handicapped. Sources of stress as well as coping responses revealed group differences in adolescents' perceptions of dependency and control.