LIFE STRESS, SOCIAL SUPPORT, AND LOCUS OF CONTROL DURING EARLY ADOLESCENCE - INTERACTIVE EFFECTS

Examined the relationships between negative events, locus of control, social support, and psychological adjustment in an early adolescent sa mple. Of interest were the potential stress-buffering effects of socia l support and the conjunctive effects of social support and locus of c ontrol upon adjustment. Family support was positively related to adjus tment in several domains, whereas school support was only related to s chool competence. Peer support was positively related to peer competen ce and anxiety, and negatively related to school competence. Examinati on of the buffering hypothesis suggested that both family and school s upport served to moderate the relationship between negative events and school competence. Conjunctive effects were also detected in that sch ool support buffered number of negative events best for those individu als with an internal locus of control for successes.