ABSTRACT
A truly life-span perspective on stress and coping requires an understanding of the processes of stress and coping at all ages as well as an understanding of changes in these processes with age. A large literature exists on stress and coping in adulthood (e.g., Goldberger & Breznitz, 1982; Hamilton & Warburton, 1979; Kutash & Schlesinger, 1980; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), and a small but rapidly growing literature exists on stress and coping in childhood (e.g., Compas, 1987; Field, McCabe, & Schneiderman, 1988; Garmezy & Rutter, 1983; Murphy & Moriarty, 1976). However, very little has been written that deals directly with stress and coping during infancy. For example, the recently published second edition of the Handbook of Infant Development (Osofsky, 1987) contains only three listings for stress and no listings for coping in the index. Only a few chapters and articles have been published elsewhere on general aspects of stress and coping in infancy (e.g., Kagan, 1983; Lerner & East, 1984; Lipsitt, 1983) or on specific stressors and coping responses in infancy (e.g., Field, 1985; Gianino & Tronick, 1988; Gunnar, Malone, & Fisch, 1985; Schanberg & Field, 1988).
