Introduction

When adversity strikes, when mental and physical functioning and health are at risk, humans ‘fight back’. Humans come with and develop a set of adaptive processes that gives them the potential to fend off disaster, to reshape challenges and to transform stressful experiences into psychological growth. Coping describes some of these adaptive processes (Coelho et al., 1974; White, 1974). Researchers agree that how people cope makes a material difference to the impact which stressful life events (including illnesses and chronic medical conditions) will have on them, both concurrently and long-term. However, the nature of these coping processes and how to assess them remain issues of hot contention.

Overview of the field

In early work, coping and defending were conceptualized as indicators of ego maturity; hence, coping was assessed by clinicians using extensive interviews (e.g. Haan, 1977; Valliant, 1986). As it became uncoupled from ego psychology, coping was seen as a manifestation of personality traits; hence, dispositional coping styles were assessed by questionnaires that tapped one or two dimensions of coping, such as sensitization versus repression. (For historical overviews, see Lazarus, 1993; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Murphy, 1974; Parker & Endler, 1996; Skinner, 2003; Snyder, 1999.)

Starting in the late 1970s, transactional, contextual and process-oriented views of coping appeared, which dominate the field today (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Moos & Billings, 1982; Pearlin & Schooler, 1978). From this perspective, coping depicts the ways an individual deals with a specific stressor in a particular context, as the transaction unfolds over time.

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to suggest strategies to aid researchers as they explore the social factors that contribute to children's motivation. These suggestions are based on three general principles: (1) children actively participate in the processes by which social factors shape their motivation; (2) the social context includes multiple dimensions and multiple levels; and (3) the elements in the equation, namely the social context and children's motivation, as well as the mechanisms that connect them, change with development. From this perspective, children are assumed to be active in selecting, initiating, interpreting, and provoking interactions with multiple and changing social partners and their proxies. A strong theoretical perspective on how these interpretations – for example, experiences of self-determination or helplessness – influence children's motivation then allows researchers to move “backward” to an identification of the broad dimensions of social interactions (such as autonomy support or chaos) that are expected to have an impact on children's interpretations. As a next step, researchers can try to analyze the multiple pathways through which social partners communicate these dimensions to children. In describing each of these steps, I suggest how sensitization to the possibility that these processes are developmental may guide the direction of research. I then use the work described in Chapters 5, 6, and 7 of this volume to illustrate how these principles can add to the study of the social factors that shape children's motivation.

Introduction

Parents and educators know that children's motivation is shaped by their social contexts.