Coping with Academic Difficulty: An Examination of Conversations Between Friends

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Ellen Altermatt will conduct two years of research on children's ability to cope with academic difficulties. Given that children spend a substantial amount of time with friends and view friends as an important source of support and guidance, it is expected that children's interactions with friends will play a critical role in their coping. This research has as its primary goals (a) to observe children's conversations with friends after they encounter academic difficulty, and (b) to predict changes in children's responses to difficulty from the features of these conversations. Coping strategies, friendship support processes, and achievement-related beliefs will be assessed by questionnaires and videotaped observations. The project's long-term goal is to better understand the role that peers play in socializing positive self-evaluative and motivational beliefs, particularly in academic contexts. This research will improve understanding of the processes by which social interactions between friends contribute to changes in children's achievement-related behaviors and beliefs. It answers calls from the coping and friendship literatures to supplement self-reports of children's coping behaviors and friendship experiences with observations of actual social interactions between close friends. Given evidence that unsuccessful coping with daily stressors can lead to negative, long-term interpersonal, psychological, and achievement-related outcomes, this research has important practical implications for improving the social and emotional well-being of children and for promoting school success.