Abstract
“Stress” and “coping” have virtually become paired associates in numerous titles of books, chapters, and journal articles (e.g., Antonovsky, 1979; Compas, 1987; Compas, Malcarne, & Fondacaro, 1988; Field, McCabe, & Schneiderman, 1985; Garmezy & Rutter, 1983; Holroyd & Lazarus, 1982; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Milgram, 1986; Roth & Cohen, 1986). By comparison, the linkage of “stress” and “competence” is a less common pairing. The term “competence” refers to those skills, capacities, and knowledge that enhance cognitive, social, and emotional adaptation (see White, 1979; Garmezy, Masten, Nordstrom, & Ferrarese, 1979). It is the central theme of this chapter that it is more productive to integrate the competence construct in studying adaptation to stress than to employ the more elusive and unstable formulations of coping. Three sections of this chapter seek to justify this somewhat atypical viewpoint.
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Garmezy, N. (1989). The Role of Competence in the Study of Children and Adolescents Under Stress. In: Schneider, B.H., Attili, G., Nadel, J., Weissberg, R.P. (eds) Social Competence in Developmental Perspective. NATO ASI Series, vol 51. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2442-0_2
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