Question

You are a clinical psychologist researching the field of cognitive coping mechanisms, (no use of pharmacological drugs), associated with resiliency for middle childhood children. What would you do to help cognitive coping of middle childhood children with the hopes that they can develop increased resiliency?

Answer 1

Answer.

During middle childhood, coping becomes remarkably strong due to the development of executive cognitive functions in the growing children which makes them resilient enough to adapt to a wide range of problems in their academic and interpersonal life . In addition, children during middle childhood can particularly benefit from the application of several cognitive coping mechanisms.

Encouraging children to intentionally reappraise and label stressful events in more positive and manageable ways that shape their emotional reactions and coping choices. Thus, verbal encouragements like motivational prompts may lead them to experience more positive views about a difficult situation and see it as a challenge to overcome rather than a hurdle.

Second, improvements in children’s abilities to identify, negotiate, and enact constructive solutions, even under demanding conditions, such as interpersonal conflict may make them more resilient to external presssures.

Third, enabling children to more deliberately and flexibly coordinate ways of coping with changing internal and external demands and resources could enable children in the middle childhood to use a wide range of strategies for constructively managing problems, and help to restore their emotional well-being.