INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSFER OF COPING STRATEGIES: WHICH COPING STRATEGIES DO YOU CHOOSE AND WHICH CHOOSE YOU?
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Date
2018-01-01
Type of Work
Department
Sociology and Anthropology
Program
Sociology, Applied
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Distribution Rights granted to UMBC by the author.
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Access limited to the UMBC community. Item may possibly be obtained via Interlibrary Loan thorugh a local library, pending author/copyright holder's permission.
This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
Abstract
Sociological research shows that socialization impacts cognitive and behavioral coping patterns (Scheid and Brown 2010:166; Root and Denham 2010:2; Hall 2015:137). The Stress Process Model posits that coping resources, such as familial support and differing socialization, may impact the way individuals appraise and cope with stress (Scheid and Brown 2010:165). Sociological research widely supports an "intergenerational parental socialization” process model, wherein parenting styles are passed down generationally (Belsky 1984; Schofield et al. 2014:973), yet there is little research on whether and how these models are transferred between generations. Furthermore, the degree of ambivalence that individuals feel towards their parents varies throughout the life course (Lendon 2017:340), and thus the desire that individuals feel to be like their parents may vary as well. Additionally, at any given time, the level of control that an individual feels over a stressor may dictate which parental coping strategies they adopt or reject, and as people age, their social support networks expand, thereby influencing the coping repertoire from which individuals may adopt stress coping strategies (Pollard et al. 2014:615). I use data from ten semi-structured interviews to explore the connections between how my interviewees cope and if the descriptions of their coping styles resemble how they describe their parents’ coping styles for managing stressful situations, more chronic strains, and even positive life events. I find that the way individuals discuss adoption or rejection of coping strategies that they learn in childhood is impacted by: shifting social supports in adulthood, levels of parent-child affection and ambivalence (on which poverty may have some impact), and stressor appraisal. Furthermore, individuals are not always fully aware that they adopt or reject the coping strategies of their parents given varying degrees of awareness.