A Study of Cognitive Styles and Coping Skills among Adolescents

Abstract

The cognitive process has faced deliberate changes among the adolescents, influencing their way of handling stressful situations and their coping skills.The aim of thestudy is to identify the cognitive styles and coping strategiesamong adolescents, as this age is full of complexes, challenges and have bio-psycho-social changes. The sample of the study comprised of 110 adolescents aged between 14 to 17 years taken from the schools of Delhi/NCR. Cognitive Style Inventory and Coping StrategiesInventory were used to study the cognitive style and coping strategies among adolescents. The results of the study showed that in the cognitive style, adolescents were using systematic cognitive style more as compared to the intuitive cognitive style. In the coping strategies, adolescents showed more inclination towards wishful thinking, problem solving, cognitive restructuring and self-criticism coping strategies. Further, findings of the study found no significant correlation between the cognitive style and coping strategies variables but both these variables individually have a very important role in dealing with the complex and challenging situations.