Date of Award

12-2006

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Program

Psychology

Department

Psychology

Major Professor

Morris, Amanda

Second Advisor

Weems, Carl

Third Advisor

Frick,Paul

Abstract

Unique stressors can prompt child adjustment difficulties. Coping strategies and emotion regulation that impact the adjustment of children in general and military family children were investigated. Eighty children, 36 with deployed parents, their parents and teachers participated. All experienced stress related to hurricane Katrina. Correlational analyses indicate that children with more hurricane-related losses or moves, use some coping strategies less often; hurricane-related child distress is related to lower maternal support; and parental hurricane-related distress is associated with high levels of child externalizing problems. When dealing with general stressors, some coping strategies were positively associated with child internalizing problems. Analyses indicate that children with high emotion regulation and use of certain coping strategies experienced less externalizing problems, and children with deployed parents were not more emotionally dysregulated or maladjusted than children with non-deployed parents. Analyses did not confirm the hypothesized roles of parental support. Gender differences are also discussed.

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

Share

COinS