Overcoming adversity: The protective role of locus of control, attributional style, and self-efficacy, in the promotion of resilience.

One main purpose of the present study was to investigate the ability of internal locus of control, optimistic attributional style, and high self-efficacy to serve as protective factors, buffering the negative impact of life stressors (both number of negative life events and daily hassles) on current competence (overall, as well as in the academic, social, and emotional domains). Given that an examination of protective factors presupposes that life stressors actually constitute risk factors for maladjustment, another related purpose was to examine this relationship directly, to determine whether such an assumption is justified. The present results suggest that the influence of daily hassles may be greater than that of past life events. Thus, it may be more important to search for factors that promote resilience in the face of more minor, ongoing stressors. Of the possible protective factors, self-efficacy, consistently emerged as a more powerful and consistent predictor of current competence than attributional style and locus of control, and was the best predictor of both social and overall competence. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Psychology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2002 .G86. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 41-04, page: 1204. Adviser: Stewart Page. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2002