Children are continuously confronted with everyday stressors in their daily routine, and their ability to deal with these stressors has been found to be significantly related to their psychological adjustment. In fact, numerous studies have indicated that having a repertoire of co** skills at a young age can be a “buffer” or moderator” of the effects of negative life stress on the development of psychological maladjustment. Because of the importance of develo** adequate skills to navigate life’s daily challenges, a number of school-based interventions have been designed with the goal of teaching children specific “problem-focused” skills that are presumed to enhance co**, yet fewer programs have taught children “emotion focused” skills such as cognitive restructuring or emotional regulation to deal with more uncontrollable stressors. This paper begins with a review of the theoretical and empirical literature on children’s co** with everyday stress and then provides a description of several existing co** skills training programs for children, highlighting those that are school-based interventions. A description is provided of a brief, school based intervention that was recently implemented to determine the differential effects of teaching young children “problem-focused” skills and teaching “emotion-focused” skills on children’s subsequent use of specific co** strategies. The study and its outcomes are reviewed. The final section of the paper focuses on issues related to conducting intervention research in the schools, and specific suggestions for researchers are delineated for every stage in the process of school based research, to best assure that the research program can be implemented in the schools efficiently and effectively.
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Pincus, D.B., Friedman, A.G. Improving Children’s Co** With Everyday Stress: Transporting Treatment Interventions to the School Setting. Clin Child and Fam Psychol Rev 7, 223–240 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-004-6087-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-004-6087-8