Coping strategies of children with an intellectual disability in regular and special classrooms

Adaptive coping behaviors of children with a mild to moderate intellectual disability educated in regular and special classrooms were examined using a comparative design incorporating both quantitative and qualitative analyses. Children's coping behaviors were examined using the Coping Inventory (Zeitlin, 1985) and their behavior was assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991). Children with an intellectual disability integrated in regular classrooms were found not to exhibit more adaptive coping behaviors than their counterparts in special classrooms. Descriptive analyses delineated several factors within both environments that influence children's coping efforts such as dependency on adults, external control, the quality of instruction, the social organization of the classroom, and the lack of direct instruction in developing children's adaptive coping efforts. Recommendations from the current study focus on the need for children with an intellectual disability to be provided with direct instruction of adaptive coping behaviors and facilitated opportunities to learn through trial and error in order to become more autonomous copers