Child maltreatment may negatively impact children and youth mental health as well as the way they cope with stressful situations. In addition, self-efficacy beliefs may be impacted by adverse experiences and may impact the individuals’ coping strategies. Despite this evidence, additional insights are needed on these processes with at-risk samples of adolescents. As such, this study aims to test the mediating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between child maltreatment and coping strategies. A sample of 171 adolescents (M = 14.11, SD = 1.78) enrolled in the child protection system have participated in the current study (59.6% female). These adolescents filled out a set of self-reported measures focused on coping (i.e., 6 dimensions: positive meaning making, avoidant, humor, support seeking, reflexive and substance use) and self-efficacy (one general dimension) and staff filled out the questionnaire about child maltreatment (physical neglect, psychological and physical abuse, psychological neglect). Non-significant mediation effects were found (p>.05 in all associations), but statistically significant total effects were obtained between the child maltreatment experiences and coping strategies: psychological neglect to substance use (=.18; p=.033), psychological and physical abuse to positive meaning making (=-.22; p=.022), support seeking (=-.24; p=010), and reflexive (=-.19; p=038) and physical neglect to positive meaning making (=.29; p=.006), support seeking (=.33; p=002). Also, total effects were found between self-efficacy beliefs and coping strategies, specifically to positive meaning making (=.20; p=.003), support seeking (=.20; p=004), and reflexive (=. 30; p<.001) The results found in this study are theoretically consistent and will be discussed in line with the literature. Implications for intervention with young people at risk will be identified in this communication.

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