The Teenage Attributional Style Questionnaire (TASQ): A valence and dimension-sensitive methodology for exploring attributional style in adolescent populations

This study focussed on the development and validation of an attributional style (AS) measure, the Teenage Attributional Style Questionnaire (TASQ), for use with adolescent and young adult populations. The AS construct has been employed to understand other variables believed to depend on differences in the processing of causal information. However, relatively little is understood about which particular AS dimensions account for many of these observed relations. Furthermore, efforts to examine AS during the teenage years are scarce. The TASQ was designed to fill a need for a reliable attribution measure appropriate for 12 to 19 year old individuals. The instrument was intended to provide for an examination of AS for positive and negative events in different social contexts. Moreover, the study proposed a conceptualization of AS which required testing through individual attribution dimensions (locus, stability, and globality) rather than more commonly applied composite scores. Data from approximately 170 high school students were collected. The internal consistency of the TASQ sub-scales was examined and validation of the measure was explored through attribution dimension scale interrelations and their relations to indicators of depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and academic achievement. Results showed that the TASQ provided reliable attribution dimension scale scores when distinguishing between positive and negative events. The validation evidence indicated the importance of distinguishing between attributions for positive and negative events and of examining the relations between AS and other variables through individual attribution dimensions. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for future AS research, contributions to knowledge about AS during adolescence, and identification of future directions for the study of AS differences based on gender, race, and other cultural distinctions.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio