Coping Mechanisms Used by College Undergraduate and Graduate Students While experiencing Childhood Traumas and Adversities

Experiences in childhood, both positive and negative, are crucial to a child’s progression. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE), defined as the occurrence of childhood maltreatment and/or the exposure to dysfunction in a child’s (ages 0-17) environment, is detrimental to children’s development. The purpose of this study is to examine the coping strategies used by individuals during their experience of childhood traumas and adversities. A sample of college students from a northeastern university (N=146) responded to the qualitative question: “What were the tools you used to cope with adversity and/or traumatic events?” Participants, with direction, responded to the prompt based on their experiences from childhood. The researcher analyzed the data thematically using an adaptive version of the coping themes developed by Machado et al. (2019) in their study of coping strategies of college students who suffer from post-traumatic stress symptoms. The two major themes of coping strategies that emerged were (1) Problem-Focused Coping, and (2) Emotion-Focused Coping (Machado et al., 2019). The minor themes of (2) Emotional-Focus Coping were (i) emotional regulation, (ii) emotional expression, and (iii) emotional avoidance. Excerpts from this study’s participants suggest that individuals dealing with adverse childhood experiences find a variety of ways to cope with their trauma and adversity. These coping strategies can be implemented into institutions’ everyday practices to aid children during their time of vulnerability. The article provides recommendations for school administrations/leadership teams, specifically those who specialize in school culture, curriculum, and social work.

Keywords: adverse childhood experiences, child Maltreatment, coping mechanisms; problem-focus coping, emotional-focus coping