Experiencing the stress of abandonment and helplessness in adolescence3

The results of comparing the experience of different types of stressful situations, including situations of abandonment and helplessness, and ways of coping with them in adolescence are presented. The study involved schoolchildren aged 12–14 years (x = 12.5; med = 12; sd = 0.7). Participants were 80 adolescents (39 girls and 41 boys). Methods: Color test of relationships; Adolescent Coping Scale E. Frydenberg, R. Lewis; Perceived Stress Scale for Children. The most difficult for adolescents is stressful situation of abandonment as a situation of experiencing emotional, informational and social deprivation. It was found that in terms of the level of perceived stress, the group indicated the abandonment as a more stressful situation for them is closest to the group indicated the extreme stressful situation (U = 69.0; p = 0.44) and differs from the groups indicated assessment situation (U = 51.5; p = 0.02) and helplessness (U = 82.5; p = 0.019). It was revealed that in the assessments of the projective situation, in which parents leave child alone at home for a period of time, the groups “Abandonment” and “Extremity” also turn out to be similar (mostly negative assessments on the situation were found). It was determined that the “Helplessness” group is characterized by coping strategies that indicate the relevance of applying to the social support, and for the “Abandonment” group, unlike all other groups, the ignoring strategy is more typical (p < 0.05).