Exploring Early Adolescents' Problem-Focused Strategies for Coping With Stressful IT Use Experiences

Abstract

In today’s technology-oriented world, individuals’ ability to cope with information technology (IT) has become increasingly important. This is especially relevant for early adolescents, who are expected to use IT from an early age on as part of their everyday lives. Although early adolescents’ IT use and its outcomes have been studied, their related coping strategies have received less attention. The current study focuses on early adolescents’ problem-focused strategies used to cope with stressful IT use experiences. The underlying data consist of semistructured interviews with 31 early adolescents. The results show that the strategies used by early adolescents differ in terms of their pervasiveness and level of IT use. Additionally, we reveal details about the connections of the strategies within different contexts, such as school and leisure. Although this study provides important insights for understanding early adolescents’ coping strategies, more research is needed to assess the effectiveness of these strategies.