Abstract

MONJARAS RODRIGUEZ, María Teresa; LUCIO Y GOMEZ MAQUEO, María Emilia; ROMERO GODINEZ, Edith  and  DURAN PATINO, Consuelo. Coping and Stress in Preschoolers: The Role of Age and Gender. Acta de investigación psicol [online]. 2021, vol.11, n.3, pp.17-25.  Epub Mar 14, 2022. ISSN 2007-4719.  https://doi.org/10.22201/fpsi.20074719e.2021.3.389.

Child mental health is considered an important issue as it has been observed that exposure to adverse situations in childhood, as well as the accumulation of these situations, affect mental health at later ages. The most frequent disorders in childhood are anxiety disorders (Antoniou & Karteris, 2017; Higa-McMillan et al., 2016). In preschoolers, conditions suggestive of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as attention deficit, stand out (Caraveo-Anduaga & Martínez-Vélez, 2019). Nowadays, the professionals in the field of childhood see many children in distress and with negative emotional reactions to certain events in their lives, which makes it very difficult to deny the existence of stress in these early ages, so stress in the early ages can have future repercussions on mental development. Gender and age are variables that play an important role in the study of stress and coping; however, they have been little studied in the preschool population, analyzing these variables contributes to the development of preventive interventions. Objective: To analyze the differences in the level of stress and types of coping according to sex and age; for this purpose, a cross-sectional study was carried out. A cross-sectional study was carried out. A non-probabilistic sample of 115 Mexican preschoolers between 4 and 5 years old (M= 4.6; SD= .49), to whom the following instruments were applied individually: Preschool Daily Stress Scale and Preschool Coping Scale. The results showed that stress affects boys and girls of 4 and 5 years old in the same way; boys use more Dysfunctional Coping and the younger ones (4 years old) use more Emotional, Dysfunctional and Avoidant Coping. The results found can collaborate in the formulation of interventions for the prevention of daily stress in preschoolers considering the developmental perspective, with younger preschooler boys, as opposed to girls, presenting greater dysfunctional coping, possibly associated to the fact that girls have an earlier development.

Keywords : Stress; Coping; Preschoolers; Sex; Age.

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