Se llevó a cabo una investigación con el fin de determinar si la autoestima es una variable que modifica la forma en que los niños perciben y afrontan los sucesos que se le presentan, así como para establecer si estos niveles de autoestima afectan el tipo de afrontamiento que adoptan los niños ante situaciones difíciles que se les presentan.

A research was made in order to determine whether the self esteem is a variable that modifies the way in which children perceive and cope events, so as to establish if these esteem levels affect the kind of coping children adopt in front of difficult situations.

The population consisted in 339 children of both sexes of the 4°, 5° and 6° primary school levels, from private and public schools. A modification of the self esteem questionnaire of Coopersmith, a questionnaire specially designed to measure stress and open questions for coping. Lineal regression analysis were made, and logistics for the results analysis, with which it was found that self esteem can predict coping, mostly when it is high, and in a lower degree when it is low esteem, and also that the stress perception levels are related to this variable.