Chapter 2: Adolescent Problem-Solving Efficacy and Coping Strategy Usage in a Population of Australian Adolescents

How young people cope with stress is an important component of health and well-being, since failure to deal with stress is very costly in social and emotional terms. Problem focused coping styles are not always significant predictors of successful outcomes unless the effects of emotional focused strategies are statistically controlled. Students’ usage of emotion and problem focused coping strategies are correlated (Lewis & Frydenberg, 2002). The assumption that perceived ineffectiveness of problem solving may predict increased use of a range of emotion focused strategies such as giving up and self-blame has been proposed as the fall-back theory. This study examines fall-back theory by using students’ perceptions of the success of their problem-solving strategies.