Das Ziel dieser Studie bestand darin, Erkenntnisse zu Bedingungen und Wechselwirkungen in der Entwicklung kognitiver Kompetenzen und Bewältigungsstrategien im Vor- und Grundschulalter zu gewinnen. Anhand eines längsschnittlichen Designs im Altersbereich von 5 bis10 Jahren wurde an einer Stichprobe von 198 Kindern untersucht, welche kognitiven Kompetenzen (Theory of Mind, Exekutive Funktionen, Intelligenz, Flexibles Hypothesenbilden) die Nutzungshäufigkeit von Bewältigungsstrategien (Akzeptanz, Positive Neubewertung, Relativieren, Positive Refokussierung) vorhersagen, und ob Wechselwirkungen zwischen dem Flexiblen Hypothesenbilden und Bewältigungsstrategien im Grundschulalter bestehen. Pfadanalysen zeigten, dass kognitiv ausgerichtete Bewältigungsstrategien in Beziehung zum Flexiblen Hypothesenbilden stehen, während affektiv ausgerichtete Strategien keinen Zusammenhang zum Flexiblen Hypothesenbilden aufwiesen. Die Ergebnisse werden in Bezug auf Interventions- und Präventionsmöglichkeiten diskutiert.

To date, research on cognitive development and on coping has rarely been related. Many authors assume that cognitive competencies have to be a precursor for coping strategies in early and middle childhood; however, relations between these two fields of childhood competencies have not been investigated longitudinally yet. The present study aimed at determining what kind of relations exist between cognitive competencies and coping at primary school age. Additionally, we intended to find out which cognitive competencies at preschool age predict later coping competencies. We longitudinally investigated 198 children at age 5, age 9, and age 10 using measures for theory of mind, executive functioning, evidence evaluation, and intelligence at age 5 and coping strategies (acceptance, positive reappraisal, putting into perspective, positive refocusing) as well as cognitive competencies (theory of mind, executive functioning, hypothesis generation) at ages 9 and 10. Correlation analyses showed that only hypothesis generation (as a particular cognitive ability during primary school) was related to coping strategies. Additional path analyses showed that more cognitively loaded coping strategies (putting into perspective and positive refocusing) were developmentally related to hypothesis generation, whereas affectively loaded coping strategies (acceptance and positive reappraisal) did not show any relationship. Our results show that further investigations on the relations between particular coping strategies and cognitive competencies are needed. Apparently, cognitive competencies are not related to all coping strategies – instead, cognitive competencies might be an important precursor particularly for cognitive coping strategies, while for other coping strategies, more than just cognition seems to be required. Our results might be relevant for designing interventions to foster emotional and cognitive development in early and middle childhood.