Major life events, hassles, and adaptation in adolescence: A comparison of alternative theoretical models using structural equation modeling

Previous work in the adolescent life stress literature has, for the most part, been guided by epidemiological models of life stress and adjustment, in which stressful life events are assumed to contribute to later psychopathology in a direct, etiologic fashion. There has been little attention directed towards understanding the complex processes through which life events impact adjustment. In addition, the vast majority of existing studies have relied on cross-sectional methodologies and have been plagued by a variety of methodological and conceptual limitations, including operational confounding among self-report measures of life stress and adjustment.With these considerations in mind, the present study sought to explore the prospective relationships between major life events, daily hassles and adjustment in a rural, low-SES adolescent sample. Five theoretically-based models were constructed and compared using structural equation modeling techniques. Results of these analyses indicated that a transactional-ecological model of life stress and adjustment, in which the impact of major life events was mediated by daily hassles, produced the best fit to the data. The implications of these findings for the development of integrative theoretical models of life stress and adjustment are discussed.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio