Parent problem-focused coping and social support coping in children

This research examined parent coping socialization using secondary data from the TWU Family Project. Parent-child dyads completed children’s social support coping measures and parents’ problem-focused coping measures. The first hypothesis: a negative correlation between parent problem-focused coping and child social support seeking coping was not supported by the correlation analysis. The second hypothesis: gender moderates the relationship between parent problem-focused coping strategies and child social support coping, where girls have a weaker relationship was not supported by the linear regression analysis. Exploratory analyses revealed that parent’s expressive encouragement significantly predicted increased child’s problem-focused coping, where a significant interaction was observed between parents’ expressive encouragement and gender, specifically girls scored higher. Gender differences were seen in the associations between parents responding with expressive encouragement and their children’s social support coping, girls had a marginally significant association, while boys did not. These results highlight parental coping socialization and gender coping differences.