Cognitive Appraisals

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Pages: 6

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential predictive factors of cognitive appraisals in adolescent girls in order to gain a better understanding of adaptive coping, promote healthy adolescent development, and combat the detrimental effects of interpersonal stress related to sexism and sexual harassment. Although previous research has examined coping responses among adult samples, limited research has been done on adolescents. Thus, the study focused on the crucial adolescent developmental stage and the experience of peer sexual harassment in the school setting.

II. This study focused on the problem area of interpersonal stress among adolescent girls in relation to sexual harassment. The assets and risks of cognitive appraisals
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The Bronfenbrenner and Morris ecological-systems model of development suggests that development occurs through multiple intersecting systems including microsystems, macrosystems, and chronosystems. The interpersonal contexts component of the study is a microsystem that encompasses the interaction the individual may have with family and peer groups, while the sociocultural background component is a macrosystem that encompasses the values and socio-economic opportunities of the individual. The developmental level component of the study is a chronosystem that is comprised of the developmental age of the individual and the historical period in …show more content…
In order to assess interpersonal contexts through perceived social support of family and peers, Harter’s Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents and DuBois, Felner, Brand, and Phillip’s questionnaire were adapted to create scale items to which participants could agree on a 4-point scale (1 = disagree strongly, 2 = disagree somewhat, 3 = agree somewhat, and 4 = agree strongly). To assess the sociocultural background of participants, ethnicity was measured on a nominal scale, and parental education was measured individually for each parent using the following ordinal scale: 1 = elementary school, 2 = some high school, 3 = high school graduate, 4 = some college, 5 = bachelor’s degree, 6 = some graduate school, or 7 = graduate degree. The developmental factors component of the study was measured through perspective taking, and items were adapted from Davis’s Interpersonal Reactivity Index on a 4-point scale (1 = disagree strongly to 4 = agree