Coping is critical for adaptation across the lifespan. However, our knowledge of how it develops is limited by the fact that most coping theories concentrate on particular life stages. The purpose of this review is to examine similarities in theories across the lifespan to identify overlapping issues that could inform a lifespan theory of coping. Generally, individuals develop more positive and efficacious ways of coping as they age, with noted individual differences. Individuals may revert back to earlier strategies when facing new traumas or transitions. Coping is embedded within social contexts. In childhood, coping is scaffolded by parents, caregivers, and teachers, transitioning to peer influence in adolescence. In adulthood, dyadic coping within couples becomes central, although its influences on coping trajectories is largely unknown. A lifespan theory of coping should address plasticity, individual differences, social contextual, and increases in situational specificity and coping efficacy for better energy and resource management.

Children practice coping every day in response to stressors big and small. Coping develops iteratively with repeated exposure to developmentally normative stressors. The everyday perspective on coping focuses on the immediate functions of coping. Children’s experiences with various coping strategies in daily life shape the development of coping over the long term. The interpersonal perspective on coping focuses on the involvement of close others, including peers and family members, in children’s coping. Interactions with others are intertwined with and shape children’s responses to stressful events. The participation of peers and family members in children’s coping is connected to the adaptiveness of their responses in the short term, and their psychological well-being over the long term. These perspectives inform the conceptualization and measurement of coping. Moreover, they provide suggestions for interventions and the direction of future research on coping development.

Relational partners are considered to be interdependent, such that their experiences are linked to one another. Based on principles of interdependence, it can be argued that partners’ experiences of stress and coping are also shared. The systemic transactional model posits that one partner’s experience of stress can affect the other partner by direct (“I’m stressed!”) or indirect (e.g., shutting down) stress expression (stress crossover). Furthermore, the ability to cope with such stressors also relies on both partner’s individual and joint coping resources. Grounded in interdependence theory, the goal of this chapter is to present an overview of how stress and coping can be understood as an interdependent construct. To highlight this, we present research on the negative associations between stress and individual and relational well-being, and the ways in which couples can cope with stress based on their shared experiences by engaging in dyadic coping. Given the robust literature on the well-established associations between stress and dyadic coping, this chapter presents recent research that extends applications of the systemic transactional model to unique populations: same-sex couples coping with minority stress and heterosexual couples coping with stress associated with the transition to parenthood.

Perhaps not surprisingly, romantic couples experience stress. Stress can originate both within the relationship, such as differing viewpoints between partners, or outside the relationship, such as learning about a poor performance review at work or having an argument with a friend. Irrespective of the origin of the stress, romantic partners are able to combat its negative effects by recognizing stress as an interdependent experience, one that is shared between partners, and engaging in positive dyadic coping. Conceptualized by Bodenmann’s systemic transactional model, positive dyadic coping is defined as supportive behaviors that help to downregulate partners’ negative experiences of stress and include providing emotional or problem-focused support. The purpose of this chapter is to present compelling evidence to conceptualize positive dyadic coping as a relationship maintenance strategy, one that helps preserve the relationship during times of distress and contributes to relationship satisfaction and longevity.