Coping behaviour by young children : longitudinal research to the development of coping styles.

In comparison to other age groups, few studies have been devloped to examine young children's coping behaviour (Karraker et al. 1994; Karraker & Lake, 1991; Zeitlin, 1981). In those where young children have been involved, coping behaviour was described in only one or a few stressful events in a laboratory setting. The present research was designed to broaden knowledge about young children's (12-36 months of age) coping behaviour in multiple non-experimental situations (transition periods) at different time-measures. Not only does this longitudinal study allow us to investigate whether changes in the course of time, but it can also provide us a needed description of individual inter-situational (in)consistency of young children's coping behaviour . Temperament and gender will be included as independent variables. Because of the young child's dependence on adults for survival, the social context must be included in order to understand the young child's coping behaviour will be taken into account. To exclude children with a retarded mental development, each child is tested using the Bayley Scales of Infant development (van der Meulen & Smrkovsky, 1983).