How do young people cope with the multitude of difficult situations and scenarios that are associated with growing up, like anxiety and depression, as well as illness, rejection and family breakdown? How can we facilitate and encourage, through a combination of health, well-being and positive mindset, healthy development during adolescence and beyond?

With a substantial focus on the positive aspects of coping, including an emphasis on developing resilience and the achievement of happiness, Erica Frydenberg presents the latest developments in the field of coping. Adolescent Coping highlights the ways in which coping can be measured and implemented in a wide range of circumstances and contexts, with suggestions for the development of coping skills and coping skills training, and it provides strong scholarly evidence for the concepts and constructs that it promotes as providing a pathway to resilience. The work is framed as an ongoing interaction between individuals and their environments as represented by the psychosocial ecological model of Bronfenbrenner.

The major theories of coping are articulated that take account of the transactional model, resources theories and proactive models of coping. Areas of recent interest such as neuroscience and epigenetics are included, alongside a new chapter, ‘Cyberworld’, which provides insights on new and relevant topics such as mindfulness and the impact of social media as they relate to coping in the contemporary context.

Adolescent Coping will be of interest to practitioners in psychology, social work, sociology, education and youth and community work as well as to students on courses in adolescent development in these fields.