Reliably measure 20 evidence-based coping strategies
Support students to identify and develop helpful coping strategies
The Adolescent Coping Scale for Schools (ACS-S) is a self-guided questionnaire that adolescents can use to identify their coping profile and how often they use their coping strategies. This important and easy-to-use tool helps adolescents examine their thinking, feelings and behaviours and can support them to make good decisions about which strategies are helpful.
The ACS-S is used to help young people identify helpful and unhelpful coping strategies.
Available online, the ACS-S measures the frequency and helpfulness of coping strategies in both general and specific situations.
30-day free trial
See how the ACS-S profile can help your students to reflect on and develop coping skills.
Coping strategies have a significant impact on student wellbeing
The ACS-S provides crucial insights into what stressors affect adolescents.
See how the insights from ACS-S can help your students to identify and develop their coping skills.
The ACS-S measures 20 evidence-based coping strategies used by adolescents.
Research indicates that patterns of coping that are formed during adolescence have a significant influence on how adolescents cope as they move into adulthood.
What is coping?
Coping can be defined as a set of cognitive and affective actions that arise in response to a particular concern.
What the research says…
Research has shown it is helpful to focus on teaching helpful problem-solving skills and productive coping strategies. Productive coping strategies that focus on problem solving are related to less emotional and behavioural problems, while non-productive coping is generally associated with poor adaptation and more mental health problems in adolescents.
When teaching coping, it is not only important to encourage adolescents to use more productive coping strategies, but also equally as important to discourage the use of non-productive coping strategies.
30-day free trial
See how the insights from ACS-S can help your students to reflect on and develop their coping skills.
ACS-S is easy to use for students and educators
Administered in your ACER online account, used for assessments such as PAT.
1
Complete the test in one session of 20–30 minutes
2
Instructions guide students and teachers through each step
3
Receive instant diagnostic feedback across a range of coping strategies.
Comprehensive reports support understanding and self-reflection
Instant reports detail the productive and non-productive coping strategies that each student employs.
With clean visuals, clear definitions and an interpretation guide, the reports are easily understood by students and educators.
Use the ACS-S to inform instruction, guidance and support programs at your school
Information from the ACS-S can help schools build a profile of how students cope, including identifying productive and non-productive coping strategies and encouraging a problem-solving approach to develop resilience.
Suggested ways of using the ACS-S at your school:
- universally screen and track students' wellbeing in year 7, year 9, and year 11
- use the support materials and resources to link the ACS-S and teaching lessons to the Australian Curriculum: Personal and Social Capability learning continuum
Resources to support curriculum planning
The Best of Coping Program is designed to provide teachers with a structured, comprehensive program for helping adolescents develop resilience and coping skills to deal with common problems and situations. The program is flexible and can be tailored to suit the identified needs of your students.
Based on rigorous research
The ACS-S has been developed from decades of academic research and from thousands of responses from students in Australia.
Developed by Dr. Erica Frydenberg and Emeritus Professor Ramon Lewis
Pricing
Online assessments and reporting
Option 1
12-month licence
Assessment price
First
Select school size for price
Second
Select school size for price
Additional
Select school size for price
Option 2
Individual student cost for online assessment
Per student administration
$9.50
Must be pre‑purchased