Age, ego level, and the life-span development of coping and defense processes

Developmental variation in coping and defense strategy use was examined in a sample of 100 male and female participants ranging in age from 10 to 77 years. Each participant was administered Loevinger's ego development task, the Ways of Coping measure, and the Defense Mechanism Inventory. In addition, a brief narrative of a stressful experience was assessed for the developmental level of the response and for its content. The results suggest that, in addition to age, the developmental measures of ego level and source of stress predict the use of particular coping and defense strategies. In keeping with other research, sex differences in coping and defense strategies were also found. These findings are discussed in light of the need for tasks that are able to assess both developmental and individual differences in the maturity of coping and defense strategy use.