Arquivos Brasileiros de Psicologia
On-line version ISSN 1809-5267
Abstract
ROSEIRO, Claudia Paresqui; PAULA, Kely Maria Pereira de and MANCINI, Camila Nasser. Stress and child coping in the context of parental divorce. Arq. bras. psicol. [online]. 2020, vol.72, n.1, pp.55-71. ISSN 1809-5267. https://doi.org/10.36482/1809-5267.ARBP2020v72i2p.55-71.
Divorce may become a stressful event, increasing the likelihood of child suffering, especially in the presence of other risk factors. This study evaluated how children deal with parental divorce, verifying relationships between coping, stress and contextual stressors. The sample consisted of 30 children, 10-12 years old, and their parents, responding to: the script of a semi-structured interview, Child Stress Scale, Adolescent Perceived Events Scale and Parental Divorce Coping Scale, based on Motivational Theory of Coping. Significant relationships were identified between stress and number of life events, emotions of fear and anger, orientation away from the stressor, and greater use of maladaptive coping strategies. It is discussed how the characteristics and magnitude of the stressors of divorce produced in children the perception of threat to their psychological needs, stress and coping maladaptive.
Keywords : Stress; Coping; Divorce; Child development.