We explain how a systems conceptualization scaffolds our understanding of the development of coping. First, we describe five developmental systems ideas that open pathways for examining age-graded changes and transformations in coping from infancy through adolescence. A systems conceptualization: (1) defines coping as action regulation under stress; (2) ties coping to basic adaptive tasks; (3) locates the study of coping between regulation and resilience; (4) views coping as hierarchically structured families of action types; and (5) holds that coping comprises an integrated multi-level system that emerges on the levels of action but incorporates both underlying neurophysiological and psychological subsystems and overarching interpersonal and societal contexts. Second, we describe six ways the coping system undergoes successive reorganizations as the coping equipment available to individuals changes with age. We show how children are active participants in the construction of coping tools, the emergence and consolidation of which depend on social partners and encounters with stressors. At every age, qualitative developmental shifts allow coping appraisals and actions to become more effectively calibrated to internal capacities and external affordances, better coordinated with other people, and guided by increasingly autonomous values and goals. We end with implications of this view for translation to practice.