Cognitive appraisal of major and daily stressful events during adolescence: A multidimensional scaling analysis.

Multidimensional scaling analysis was used to examine adolescents' cognitive appraisals of major and daily stressful events. The desirability of events was the only salient feature for early adolescents. Middle and late adolescents also appraised events in terms of their desirability; in addition, the amount of impact that events exerted on their lives and the generality of the causes of events were salient dimensions for these age groups.

Relationship of life events and social support with psychological dysfunction among adolescents.

Relationships among major life events, perceived social support, and psychological disorder were assessed in a sample of older adolescents. Negative life events and satisfaction with social support were significantly and independently related to a range of psychological symptoms. Further, the relationship between negative events and disorder was moderated by gender, the types of events experienced, and anticipated change in the psychosocial environment.

A prospective study of life events, social support, and psychological symptomatology during the transition from high school to college.

Life events, perceived social support, and psychological symptoms were studied prospectively among older adolescents during the transition from high school to college. These variables were reciprocally related to one another in patterns which changed over a period of 6 months. The findings are supportive of a transactional model of stress that emphasizes reciprocal, rather than linear, paths of influence.

Characteristics of life events during adolescence.

Two studies of the characteristics of life events during adolescence are reported. In the first, open-ended reports of major life events and daily events were obtained from early, middle, and late adolescents. Analyses of the frequency of past events perceived as positive versus negative revealed effects for type of event (major vs.

Parent and child causal attributions during clinical interviews.

Attributions made by children and their parents for the cause of the child's clinical problem were monitored during assessment interviews. Results support previously observed differences obtained through questionnaires, with parents making more attributions than their children to characteristics of the child. This pattern was affected by variations in interview format.

Parent and child causal attributions related to the child's clinical problem.

Parents and children were asked to give causal attributions related to the child's learning or behavior problems and an area of success. Actor-observer differences and tendencies of actors to make differential attributions for their positive and negative outcomes were examined. A significant number of parents and children were in disagreement regarding the cause of the child's problem.

Clinicians' judgments of female clients' causal attributions.

Presented clinical psychologists (N = 400) with statements of female client attributions for presenting problems with locus of causality varied. Clinicians' judgments of clients were investigated through their evaluations of the accuracy of these attributions. While clinician did not differ in estimate of accuracy based on whether attribution were internal or external, female clinicians were more likely than males to judge client attributions as accurate.