Danuta Borecka-Biernat

The aim of the study was to identify family-related factors connected with aggressive and task-oriented coping strategies in adolescent youth in situations of social conflict. The study was conducted on a sample of 893 adolescents aged 13 to 15. M. Plopa’s Parental Attitude Scale (Skala Postaw Rodzicielskich, SPR), the Questionnaire for Coping Strategies in Parents in Situations of Social Conflict (Kwestionariusz Strategii Radzenia sobie Rodziców w Sytuacji Konfliktu Społecznego, KSRwSK) by D. Borecka-Biernat, and Questionnaire for Coping Strategies in Adolescents in Situations of Social Conflict (Kwestionariusz do Badania Strategii Radzenia sobie Młodzieży w Sytuacji Konfliktu Społecznego, KSMK) by D. Borecka-Biernat were used in the study. An analysis of the results of the study has indicated family discriminants of aggressive and task-oriented coping strategies in adolescents in situations of social conflict; those discriminants include the perceived parental attitudes in father, including the inconsistent, autonomous, and demanding attitude; the perceived aggressive strategy in mother and father in situations of social conflict, as well as the task-oriented strategy in mother in situations of social conflict. Identifying the determinants of aggressive and task-oriented strategies in youth might allow the caretakers of adolescents to better understand their behaviour in situations of social conflict and look at its roots from the young people’s perspective. Understanding the determinants of these behaviours is a necessary step in designing strategies that can shape individuals capable of coping with conflicts in a mature manner.

The aim of the research was to assess the role of self-esteem and cognitive appraisal of a conflict in generating  destructive and constructive strategies of coping used by adolescents in social conflict situations. The following research tools have been used in the research: the Self-Esteem Scale (SES) developed by M. Rosenberg, adapted by M. Łaguna, K. Lachowicz-Tabaczek, and I. Dzwonkowska; the Stress Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ) (Polish: KOS – Kwestionariusz Oceny Stresu) by D. Włodarczyk and K. Wrześniewski; as well as the Questionnaire for the study of adolescents’coping strategies employed in social conflict situations (Polish: KSMK – Kwestionariusz strategii radzenia sobie młodzieży w sytuacji konfliktu społecznego) developed by D. Borecka-Biernat. The empirical research was carried out in middle schools (Polish: gimnazjum). The research involved 893 adolescents (468 girls and 425 boys) aged 13–15. Analysis of research results indicates that in the case of adolescents, lower assessment of one’s capacities and the appraisal of conflict in terms of threat or harm/loss, generally coincides with the tendency to react destructively when faced with a conflict. The research has also  indicated that an adolescent with higher self-esteem, when involved in a conflict that is not assessed as threatening, implements a constructive strategy to cope with the situation. 

Aggressive Coping Strategy of Adolescents in Social Conflict Situation. Analysis of Personality and Family Determinants

The aim of the study was to search for the personality and family predictors of an aggressive coping strategy of adolescents in the social conflict situation. The following tools were applied: Danuta Borecka-Biernat’s Questionnaire to Study Strategies for Coping with a Social Conflict Situation by Adolescents (KSMK), Stress Evaluation Questionnaire (KOS) by Dorota Włodarczyk and Kazimierz Wrześniewski, Morris Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), Questionnaire to Study a Sense of Control (KBPK) by Grażyna Krasowicz and Anna Kurzyp-Wojnarska, Three-Factor State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (TISCO) by Charles Spielberg and K. Wrześniewski, Parental Attitudes Scale (SPR) by Mieczysław Plopa, and Questionnaire to Investigate Strategies for Coping with a Social Conflict Situation by Parents in the Perception of a Child (SRwSK) by Danuta Borecka-Biernat. The empirical research was carried out in the junior high schools and comprised 893 adolescent (468 girls and 425 boys) aged 13–15. The research showed that judging the conflict as a threat, a higher evaluation of the physical characteristics of a young person, a strong belief in the influence of others on the positive and negative effects of the events, and the response with anger in interpersonal situations posing a threat to ‘I’ coincide with an aggressive coping strategy of adolescents in the social conflict situation. Moreover, the analysis of the results has shown that the adolescents’ aggressive way of reacting to emotional tension, which arises in the social confl ict situation, is shaped by the parents’ inadequate educational attitude of the emotional distance towards their adolescent child, as well as by the parents’ aggressive pattern of reacting to the conflict.

Interfamily predictors of defensive coping strategies in lower-secondary school students in the social conflict situation

The aim of the research has been to determine the family aetiology of defensive coping strategies (aggression, avoidance, submission) employed by teenagers in social conflict situations and resulting from educational attitudes and model coping strategies chosen by their parents in analogous contexts. The following assessment methods have been used: the scale of parental attitudes by Mieczysław Plopa, the questionnaire of parental coping strategies in social conflict situations in the child’s perception (SRwSK) by Danuta Borecka-Biernat, and the questionnaire of adolescent coping strategies in social confl ict situations (KSRK) by D. Borecka-Biernat. The empirical study has covered 892 students (464 girls and 423 boys) aged 13–15, from the first, second and third years of the lower secondary school. The results show that adolescents are not able to deal constructively with the social confl ict situation unless in their educational environment they find approval, openness to their matters, recognition of their freedom of action, respect for their rights, and a model of active behaviour provided by signifi cant others while seeking a viable solution to a conflict. Defensive forms of coping strategies in social conflict situations develop under  the influence of educational parental attitudes and models of reacting to problems, manifested in parents’ behaviours in emotional tension situations.