Coping Development as an Everyday Interpersonal Process

Children practice coping every day in response to stressors big and small. Coping develops iteratively with repeated exposure to developmentally normative stressors. The everyday perspective on coping focuses on the immediate functions of coping. Children’s experiences with various coping strategies in daily life shape the development of coping over the long term. The interpersonal perspective on coping focuses on the involvement of close others, including peers and family members, in children’s coping. Interactions with others are intertwined with and shape children’s responses to stressful events. The participation of peers and family members in children’s coping is connected to the adaptiveness of their responses in the short term, and their psychological well-being over the long term. These perspectives inform the conceptualization and measurement of coping. Moreover, they provide suggestions for interventions and the direction of future research on coping development.