Narratives of bullying and emersion of self-compassion expressions in adolescents

This study aimed to investigate the narratives of bullying and the expression of self-compassion in statements written by adolescents as a possible coping strategy. Participated 162 adolescents from a state in northern Brazil. The data collected in written testimonials were categorized based on Bardin’s Content Analysis. The instructions provided for preparing the testimonies supported the structuring of four categories: 1) bullying experience; 2) reasons for bullying; 3) consequences of bullying; 4) coping strategies and self-compassion expressions. The results suggest 63.7% of adolescents witnessed bullying behaviors. Physical characteristics were the main motivation reported toward bullying. Negative feelings and psychosomatic symptoms were the main consequences reported. The adolescents reported forms of self-compassion as a coping resource before receiving psychoeducation about the concept. The implications of these findings and the use of psychoeducational interventions on bullying and self-compassion are discussed.

WhatsApp group as a shared resource for coping with political violence: The case of mothers living in an ongoing conflict area

In recent years, mobile media applications have become a significant resource for crisis communication and communal coping during natural disasters and wars. Drawing on communal coping and media affordance research, we examined the roles that a WhatsApp group plays for mothers living in an ongoing conflict area. We examined, through in-depth interviews, a local WhatsApp group operating in a community adjacent to the Israel–Gaza border. Findings revealed the unique emotion-focused and problem-focused coping strategies people use when facing ongoing threats. Four affordances—immediacy, reachability, mobility, and multimediality—contributed to WhatsApp’s role as a shared and ubiquitous coping resource. This study demonstrates the ways in which instant messaging communication affordances contribute to communal coping strategies in ongoing conflict areas.

Religious coping in adolescents: new evidence and relevance

Adolescence is frequently seen as a troubled age. In many Western societies this is also a time of sharp religious decline. The question arises as to what extent religious faith and practice could help teenagers cope with their distress, especially when religion fades away in secularized environments and stops being a common coping resource. A study was conducted in South-East Spain (N = 531) to assess coping styles—religious and secular—and how they are related to other variables. The outcomes suggest that religious coping has become a minor choice. It correlates positively with age and is mixed with secular coping strategies. Secularization implies a confidence lost in religious means and the search for alternative coping strategies. This study reveals that religious coping works best when linked to religious communities and in combination with other non-religious strategies.

Religious coping in adolescents: New evidence and relevance

Adolescence is frequently seen as a troubled age and, in many societies, as a time of sharp religious decline. The question arises to what extent religious faith and practice could still help teenagers to cope with their distress, especially when religion fades away in secularized environments and stops being a common coping resource. A new survey has been conducted in South-East Spain (N=531) to assess coping styles – religious and secular – and how they are related to other variables. The outcomes confirm that religious coping becomes a minority choice; it is related to age – for those older in the sample – and is mixed with secular coping strategies. Secularization implies a confidence lost in religious means to tackle distress and life crisis and the search for alternative coping strategies. The study explores the practical implications of those outcomes.

Subjective Comfort, Coping-Strategies, and Types of Accentuations of Personality of Russian and Indonesian University Students

This article introduces a comparative study of subjective comfort, coping-strategies, and types of accentuations of the personalities of Russian and Indonesian university students. The research employed the scale of subjective comfort assessment by A. Leonova, coping-test by R. Lazarus, and a test-questionnaire by G. Schmieschek and K. Leonhard. The experiment included 30 Russian and 30 Indonesian students (mean age – 20,5). The research revealed general qualities and differences between indicators of types of personality accentuations and ways of mastering stress. The students appeared to have no significant distinctions on the level of subjective comfort, which was normal. The Indonesian students distanced themselves and used self-control while facing stress more than Russian students. The most expressed types of personality accentuation of the Russian students were emotivity, demonstrativeness, and exaltation. As for the Indonesian students, it was pedantry. The subjective comfort of the Russian students had four interrelations with types of personality aссentuation, i.e. direct interrelations with emotive personality aссentuation and demonstrative and negative interrelations with obsessive and dysthymic personality aссentuations. There were three connections with coping-strategies, i.e. direct interrelations with "planning" and "positive reevaluation" strategies and an inverse one – with "fleeing" strategy. The subjective comfort of the Indonesian students had four interrelations with types of personality aссentuations: direct interrelations with hyperthymic and demonstrative aссentuations and an inverse one – with excitable and emotive. They had two interrelations with coping-strategies: inverse interrelations with "distancing" and "fleeing" strategies. The results proved the interdependence of subjective comfort and personal traits and the formed ways of mastering stress. The data obtained can be used in programs for coping-resource development in students.