THE COPING STRATEGIES IN FAMILIES WITH TEENAGERS

Abstract

The aims of this study are: a) to describe the family coping strategies used by parents with teenagers and the more useful ones, and b) to check possible differences according to the academic level regarding the coping strategies used and considered useful.With this aim in view, a sample of 386 parents (193 married couples) with teenagers were evaluated using F-COPES (McCubbin et al., 1981). The results obtained prove that a) the Reframing and Acquiring Social Support strategies are the most used and useful family coping strategies; b) both women and men score in the same sense; c) significant differences are produced between the use and the utility frequency in all factors of F-COPES, but only the Reframing strategy is considered The most useful, although it is less used; d) those who consider the Reframing strategy the most useful are men and women with university stusies, as opposed to the rest of categories of the academic level variable.