Sense of Coherence and Ego-Resiliency as Predictors of Maladaptive Coping Among Juveniles With Different Levels of Delinquency

• Author: Karol Konaszewski,Małgorzata Niesiobędzka
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211049198
• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Date: 01 December 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211049198

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2022, Vol. 66(16) 1862 –1878

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X211049198

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Article

Sense of Coherence and Ego-

Resiliency as Predictors of

Maladaptive Coping Among

Juveniles With Different

Levels of Delinquency

Karol Konaszewski1

and Małgorzata Niesiobędzka1

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to determine the role of the sense of coherence and

ego-resiliency as buffers for maladaptive coping among juveniles with different

levels of delinquency. The study included 561 juveniles referred by a family court to

youth education or probation centers throughout Poland. We used SEM to search

for relations between variables and the critical ratio test for differences between

groups. The results demonstrate that in both groups, the relationships between the

components of the sense of coherence and the emotional style were negative. In

both groups, the sense of comprehensibility was significantly associated with the

search for social contacts. The impact of ego-resiliency on social-diversion coping

was significantly stronger for the group with high compared with low demoralization.

The study demonstrate that juveniles with a high degree of delinquency are more

prone to emotion-oriented coping. Both groups of juveniles use two types of

avoidance style to a similar extent. The results show that the stronger the sense of

coherence, the less often juveniles cope with stress by reducing emotional tension

and by escaping into substitute activities. Furthermore, our findings reveal the dark

side of ego-resiliency.

Keywords

ego-resiliency, coherence, coping, juveniles, maladaptive, delinquency

1University of Bialystok, Poland

Corresponding Author:

Karol Konaszewski, Faculty of Education, University of Bialystok, Świerkowa 20, Bialystok 15-328,

Poland.

Emails: k.konaszewski@uwb.edu.pl, karolkonaszewski@wp.pl

1049198IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X211049198International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyKonaszewski and Niesiobędzka

research-article2021

Konaszewski and Niesiobędzka 1863

Introduction

Crime, especially among juveniles, is a very important social problem that is at the

center of attention of criminologists, educators and lawyers. Polish legislation pro-

vides a number of upbringing measures aimed at first improving the behavior and then

shaping the attitudes and personality of juveniles. These can be actions in an open

environment and in an institutional space. If the degree of delinquency and the harm-

fulness of the punishable offense is low, the juvenile is sent to a probation center. On

the other hand, if the degree of delinquency is significant or the harmfulness of the act

is high, the juvenile may be sent to a youth educational center (Kwadrans &

Konaszewski, 2018; Sawicki & Konaszewski, 2014). One of the important areas of

activity of institutions to which juveniles are directed is assistance aimed at develop-

ing and improving coping skills. An indispensable element of aid programs is the

recognition of the resources and methods juveniles use to cope with aggravating and

difficult situations. Weaver and Wootton (1992) showed that juveniles tend to view the

world as threatening and hostile. They often experience a sense of injustice, helpless-

ness in various life situations and difficulties in adapting to the requirements of the

outside world (Weaver & Wootton, 1992). Similarly, Shulman and Cauffman (2011)

showed that adolescents referred to isolation institutions are characterized by a high

level of stress with which they are not be able to cope (Shulman & Cauffman, 2011).

Coping with stressful situations can take the form of planning and focusing on a

task (a task-oriented style), focusing on your own emotional experiences (e.g., anger,

guilt) and their reduction (emotional style) or on the avoidance of thinking and expe-

riencing a stressful situation by engaging in substitute activities or searching for

social contacts (avoidant style; Endler & Parker, 1990, 1994). That study demon-

strated that young offenders reported using emotional, avoidant and detached coping

styles more than juveniles. They also reported more overall psychological distress

compared with non-offender juveniles, with a trend to report increased depression,

anxiety, and insomnia. For both young and juvenile offenders, the predicted emo-

tional coping increased psychological distress. This was consistent across different

symptoms (i.e., somatic, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction, and severe depres-

sion). For young offenders, rational coping predicted a decrease in overall distress

and was found across all symptoms (Ireland et al., 2005). In other studies, analysis of

how youth avoid violence revealed three distinct precautionary or coping strategies.

These three categories highlight a range of conflict management techniques from

avoidance to aggression. Those youth who were younger, sex offenders or newer to

the facility used more passive avoidance techniques while gang members and those

more active in violent misconduct used more aggressive techniques (Reid & Listwan,

2018). In addition, the results demonstrated that deviant adolescents were more likely

to use disengagement coping strategies (Markova & Nikitskaya, 2017). It is worth

highlighting that studies on how juveniles cope with stress are rare. In our research,

we focus on two styles of coping—emotional and avoidant—and we try to determine

whether the level of delinquency significantly differentiates the tendency to use emo-

tional and avoidant styles. Lazarus and Folkman (1984) proposed that both stress and