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Youth with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: Coping and Psychological Difficulties

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Family Therapy with Adolescents in Residential Treatment

Part of the book series: Focused Issues in Family Therapy ((FIFT))

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Abstract

Youth who access day or residential mental health treatment are dealing with varied clinical symptoms. These youth also experience many life challenges, such as academic difficulties, strained relationships, and family conflict. There is a dearth of research on the youths’ attempts at coping with these challenges. The purpose for this chapter was to describe the use of survey research methods to capture self-reported data with youth accessing day and residential treatment, in order to discover the coping strategies they endorsed. Additionally, in this chapter an example of this methodology is presented through an exploration of the relationships between self-reported active, passive/depressive, and risky coping strategies and psychological difficulties. Using a cross-sectional design, 30 adolescents completed standardized measures of psychological difficulties and coping with stress. Youth reported using a variety of strategies to cope. They endorsed learning to live with it and doing an activity alone as the two most common. There were robust relationships between active (negative association) and risky behaviors (positive association) with psychological difficulties. Implications for the conduct of research in residential treatment centers and family therapy are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the youth who participated in the study and took the time to share their personal challenges and experiences. We also have great appreciation for the staff that facilitated the study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada

    Michèle Preyde

  2. Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, 246 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON, M5S 1V4, USA

    Jessica Furtado

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, ON, N9B 3P4, USA

    Amy Tran

  4. Speech-Language Pathology, 500 University Ave #160, Toronto, ON, M5G 1V7, USA

    Victoria Currie

Authors
  1. Michèle Preyde
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  2. Jessica Furtado
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  3. Amy Tran
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  4. Victoria Currie
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michèle Preyde .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Mount Mercy University , Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA

    Jacob D. Christenson

  2. Mount Mercy University, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA

    Ashley N. Merritts

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Preyde, M., Furtado, J., Tran, A., Currie, V. (2017). Youth with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: Coping and Psychological Difficulties. In: Christenson, J., Merritts, A. (eds) Family Therapy with Adolescents in Residential Treatment. Focused Issues in Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51747-6_22

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