Stress, Coping, and Development in Children

Abstract

This book has a deceptively simple title but its contents are complex. It is an outgrowth of a seminar at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences from 1979 to 1980. The 12 chapters are written by individual authors from varied fields, so some overlaps and repetitions are inevitable. As this reviewer sees it, the problems and questions often posed but unanswered are as follows. First, there is the fact that relatively little research in this area has been focused on children as compared with adults. Then, there is the difficulty in adapting a definition of stress to which all would agree. What is a stress for some may not be for others. Do we measure stress psychologically or physiologically? How do we separate the effects of acute severe stress from that which is chronic and of less intensity? To add another complication, why do some youths and adults