Use of the Kidcope to identify socio-economically diverse Spanish school-age children’s stressors and coping strategies

Abstract

Background: The process by which children cope with stressful events is a very relevant topic. However, few systematic efforts have been made to design age-specific measures. Methods: This study examined problems commonly experienced by children, ages between 7 and 12 years, from two different sources: a primary school mainly enrolling families of medium socio-economic status, and an after-school social care centre from a socially and economically deprived neighbourhood. Data were obtained using the younger version of the Kidcope. Results: Almost 55% of the sample reported a problem related to others with no differences observed in age, gender or school group. The strategies that children considered the most effective were ‘social support’ (35%), ‘emotional regulation’ (33%) and ‘wishful thinking’ (32%). The children from disadvantaged backgrounds reported different problems mainly related with ‘victimization and violence’, ‘moving house’ and conflicts with ‘norms and rules’ and tended to use avoidant strategies to face them, which could be related to the perception of uncontrollability of these stressors. Conclusions: This study reported the first descriptive results in the type of problems and coping strategies of two different social groups of Spanish children using the Kidcope. The Kidcope can be useful to screen children for coping abilities at an early age living under stressful conditions in underprivileged sectors of society.