ABSTRACT
Research on adolescent development has devoted little attention to the social and cognitive processes that are linked to adaptive or maladaptive psychological outcomes. This is surprising, since it is widely acknowledged that most adolescents are confronted with a wide range of normative and non-normative stressors, which may tax their emotional and cognitive resources. The chapter focuses on the coping behaviours of adolescents who have adaptive and maladaptive outcomes. It deals with coping as a core process, which is linked to current and future social functioning in adolescents. The chapter illustrates how social cognitive processes may contribute to the "counselling aversion" seen in emotionally troubled adolescents. Two basic coping styles are most prominent when adolescents deal with age-typical stressors. The impact of social-cognitive maturity on coping becomes obvious when comparing factor structures in different age samples. Maladaptive coping styles are very prominent in clinically referred samples of adolescents.
