The Relationships between Knowledge Structures and Appraisals of Economically Disadvantaged Adolescents

The study's objective was to test adolescents' self-regulation based upon Cervone, Shadel, Smith, and Fiori's (2006) knowledge and appraisal personality architecture model. Self-regulation was defined as the relationships between knowledge structures (enduring mental representations of the world) and appraisal processes (dynamic meanings constructed to evaluate various events). In our study, the knowledge variables were authoritarianism and locus of control while appraisal variables were categorized as personal orientation (coping, communication, self-esteem) and relational orientation (perspective taking, empathy, prosocial behavior tendency). The purpose of the study was to identify the relationships between these variables and compare gender differences for each indicator. The participants were 246 adolescents (125 males and 121 females) whose ages ranged between 12 and 15 and who were the inhabitants of a poor urban neighborhood in Ankara, Turkey. The results showed that external locus of control and authoritarianism were not related, while the former was negatively related to both personal and relational orientations and authoritarianism was positively related to only relational orientation. Boys' external locus of control was higher than girls', whereas girls' scores exceeded boys' in self-reliant coping with stress, open communication, and interpersonal reactivity. No gender differences were observed for authoritarianism, prosocial behavior tendency, and self-esteem. Notre projet etait d’estimer l’autoregulation des adolescents a partir du modele structurale de connaissances et d’evaluation de la personnalite de Cervone, Shadel, Smith et Fiori (2006). L’autoregulation recouvre les relations entre les connaissances (les representations stables du monde) et les processus d’evaluation (les significations dynamiques elaborees pour apprecier differents evenements). Dans notre recherche, les variables de connaissances etaient l’autoritarisme et le locus of control tandis que les variables d’evaluation etaient regroupees sous les rubriques « orientation personnelle » (faire-face, communication, estime de soi) et « orientation relationnelle » (changement de point de vue, empathie, tendance a adopter un comportement favorable aux autres). Ce travail cherchait a identifier les relations entre ces dimensions et a comparer les differences dues au genre pour chacun des indicateurs. Les sujets etaient 246 adolescents (125 garcons et 121 filles) entre douze et quinze ans qui habitent un quartier pauvre d’Ankara (Turquie). Les resultats montrent qu’un locus of control externe et l’autoritarisme ne sont pas en rapport, alors que le premier est correle negativement aux orientations personnelle et relationnelle ; l’autoritarisme n’est lie positivement qu’a l’orientation relationnelle. Le locus of control externe des garcons est superieur a celui des filles alors que les scores des filles depassent ceux des garcons dans le traitement autonome du stress, la communication libre et la sensibilite interpersonnelle. Les deux genres se rejoignent sur l’autoritarisme, la tendance a adopter un comportement favorable aux autres et l’estime de soi.