Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
International Journal of Behavioral Development
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (OnlineFirst PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Babb, K. A.
Right arrow Articles by Arseneault, J. M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Article

Shifting gears: Coping flexibility in children with and without ADHD

Kimberley A. Babb1*, Linda J. Levine2, and Jaime M. Arseneault1

1 University of Windsor, Canada
2 University of California, Irvine, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kbabb{at}uwindsor.ca.


  Abstract
This study examined developmental differences in, and cognitive bases of, coping flexibility in children with and without ADHD. Younger (age 7 to 8) and older (age 10 to 11) children with and without ADHD (N = 80) responded to hypothetical vignettes about problematic interactions with peers that shifted from controllable to uncontrollable over time. We assessed children’s coping ­strategies, perceptions of controllability, coping repertoire size, and executive function. Coping ­flexibility was defined as reporting more strategies directed toward adjusting to, rather than changing, situations as they became uncontrollable. Older children without ADHD demonstrated greater coping flexibility than did younger children without ADHD or either age group with ADHD. The age difference in coping flexibility was mediated by older children’s greater accuracy in perceiving decreases in controllability. Children with ADHD (both younger and older) reported more anti­social strategies than did children without ADHD, a difference that was accounted for by their smaller repertoire of coping strategies. Programs directed toward enhancing coping flexibility may need to target different cognitive skills for children with and without ADHD.

First published on September 10, 2009
International Journal of Behavioral Development 2009, doi:10.1177/0165025409345070
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?