Adolescents’ and Their Friends’ Coping Strategies: Implications for Behaviors and Subjective Experiences During Problem Talk

ABSTRACT Adolescence is a critical developmental stage for the refinement of coping strategies and close friends are thought to play a central role in this process. The current study considered the extent that adolescents’ coping strategies were linked with adolescent friends’ behaviors in the context of talking about problems, and subjective experience that their distress was reduced after talking to their friends about problems. Participants were 192 adolescents who participated with a close same‐gender friend (M age = 14.16 years; 68% girls; 89% White). Adolescents reported on their use of support‐seeking, active, and overwhelmed/avoidant coping strategies. The friends were observed talking about problems and their interactions were coded for the extent adolescents made disclosures and the friend responded in positive engaged or negative disengaged ways. After the interaction, adolescents reported on the extent they felt supported, understood, and validated (i.e., positive relationship provisions) and that their problems were important, upsetting, and difficult to feel better about (i.e., negative problem perceptions). Results indicated adolescents who reported using support‐seeking coping strategies made more disclosures to their friends, received fewer negative disengaged responses, and reported greater positive relationship provisions. Adolescents who reported using overwhelmed/avoidant coping strategies had friends who disclosed more, both provided and received more positive engaged responses, and reported greater negative problem perceptions. Adolescents who reported using active coping strategies received fewer negative disengaged responses and reported greater positive relationship provisions.