We present a model and review research supporting the proposal that children’s temperamental negative reactivity and effortful control in early and middle childhood mediates and moderates the effects of experiences of family contextual stress and adversity on children’s developing coping strategies, and in turn, adjustment problems. Evidence suggests that family contextual risk contributes to increases in negative emotionality and decreases in effortful control, which in turn predict greater reliance on avoidant coping and less use of active strategies. Further, negative emotionality and lower effortful control increase the likelihood that family contextual risk factors predict greater use of avoidant coping. We highlight evidence that flexible use of active and avoidant coping may be key to children’s adjustment in response to experiences of family risk. We also examine the effects of protective family contexts in promoting effective, flexible coping. In addition, we emphasize the need for more complex models that take intersecting racial, cultural, and gender identities into account in understanding the effects of temperament and family context on children’s coping and the implications of different coping strategies for children’s adjustment.