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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Coping and defending
— age differences in maturity of defence mechanisms and coping strategies | | Author(s) | M T Whitty |
| Journal title | Aging & Mental Health, vol 7, no 2, March 2003 |
| Pages | pp 123-132 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Stress ; Attitude ; Young adults [20-25] ; Middle aged ; Young elderly ; Comparison ; Australia. |
| Annotation | Previous studies have examined other coping strategies or defence mechanisms, but few have considered both. This research examined age differences in the type of defence mechanisms and coping strategies that people employ. In addition, gender differences, personality, and environment variables were taken into account. Three age groups were used in this Australian study: 17-23, 40-47, and 63-70. The youngest participants used significantly fewer mature defence mechanisms and significantly more immature defence mechanisms than the other groups. However, there were no significant differences in maturity in defence mechanisms between the middle-aged and the oldest group. In contrast, no age differences were revealed for effectiveness of coping strategies people employ. One further interesting finding was that people with a higher purpose in life were more likely to use mature defence mechanisms. This research concludes that when developing theories on stress, psychologists might benefit from considering both defence mechanisms and coping strategies. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-030806205 A |
| Classmark | QNH: DP: SD6: SE: BBA: 48: 7YA |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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