Аннотация:The article analyzes the patterns of proactive coping with difficult life situations in adolescents. In the modern transitive world coping with future difficulties require very high individual’s resources. From our point of view, in relation to adolescence, these resources are reflected in the laws of proactive coping. In an empirical study on a sample of 523 adolescents, personality and situational factors of preference for proactive coping strategies in difficult life situations were analyzed. As personal factors, was, as usual in studies of reactive coping, were analyzed the locus of control, self-efficacy and tolerance to ambiguity. As situational a representation of past emotional experiences of stressful situations (experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic disorder - PTSD) was examined. Preventive, reflective and proactive coping strategies turned out to be associated with a high level of self-efficacy and pronounced tolerance to ambiguity, but not related to strategic planning in predicting future life difficulties. An internal locus of control has been linked to this proactive coping strategy. Such a proactivity strategy as the search for social support did not have interconnections with the studied personality characteristics. The most pronounced association with PTSD symptoms was found with a low level of strategic planning and proactive coping skills. The greatest risks of PTSD in a traumatic situation were for people with a low level of proactive coping, strategic planning and the search for instrumental support. Thus, the results show the presence of ambiguous interdependencies, which is a consequence of the complexity of the proactivity phenomenon itself.