Children's knowledge and use of coping strategies during hospitalization for elective surgery

The questions addressed in this study were: (a) how age relates to differences in children's coping knowledge and coping behaviors while they are hospitalized for elective surgey, (b) how individual differences and development in problem-solving relate to children's coping capacities, and how these factors affect relations between age and coping, and (c) the degree to which coping knowledge and coping behaviors are related. The results indicated that age, in combination with problem-solving skills and gender, predicted children's knowledge of specific coping strategies— behavioral distraction, cognitive distraction, adaptive approach, and escape. Specific coping knowledge, in turn, related to aspects of children's coping behaviors while they were hospitalized for elective surgery. Studies of children's responses to hospitalization and medical treatment provide a valuable opportunity to learn more about children's responses to streesful, uncontrollable situations in which awareness and manipulation of cognitive states are likely to be important.