Comparison of the self esteem, communication skills and coping methods between the adolescents whose parents are divorced and the adolescents whose parents are living together

This study was aimed to comparatively evaluate the self-esteem, communication skills and coping strategies of adolescents of divorced parents aged between 12-15 years old using appropriate scales. The study sample consisted of 190 students aged between 12-15 years old studying in secondary school in Istanbul during 2016-2017 academic calendar. Self-conception was assessed by Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Communication Skills Inventory, Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Scale (Brief COPE) and demographic information was gathered from Personal Information Forms. SPSS 23.0 program was used for the analysis of the descriptive and relational screening model. Student's t test was employed for more than two variables. The results obtained from the study demonstrated that the children of divorced parents use non-functional coping attitudes whereas the children of married parents use emotion-focused coping attitudes. In addition, behavioral communication skill is higher for the children with divorced parents, whereas emotional communication skill is higher for the children with married parents. Self-esteem, trust in others, depressive mood, psychosomatic symptoms, degree of involvement in discussions, interest of parents and psychic isolation subscale scores showed significant differences in adolescents by their parents' marital status. Fancifulness and psychosomatic symptoms, instrumental social support, being emotion-focused and dropping out from other activities scale averages showed a statistically significant difference by genders of children.