Stressor Frequency and Perceived Intensity as Predictors of Internalizing Symptoms: Gender and Age Differences in Adolescence

The primary goal of the present study was to determine whether male and female adolescents experience different levels of stressful events and report different levels of internalizing symptoms over the age range from 11 to 20 years. The secondary goal was to determine whether females appraise events as more intensely stressful than males. Questionnaire measures of stress frequency and intensity, and internalizing (i.e., depression, anxiety, psychosomatic symptoms, and self-esteem) were obtained from 1012 boys and 1493 girls. Consistent with past studies, gender and age differences were found in the self-reported occurrence of everyday stressors and in levels of internalizing symptoms. Girls reported significantly more stressful events from age 12 to 17 than boys, and girls showed higher levels of internalizing from age 13. We also found that girls reported higher perceived stressor intensity than boys. ********** Adolescence is not an easy developmental period for many teenagers. When children enter adolescence, they are suddenly exposed to a variety of new experiences and challenges. Some of these experiences and challenges originate from within, such as dealing with pubertal changes, while others are associated with external forces such as peer pressure (Cummings, Greene, & Karraker, 1991). Consequently, how adolescents cope with these challenges and the impact this has on their adjustment has been the impetus for a large amount of research. Research on adolescents has found that girls are less well adjusted than boys and that this gender difference varies by age (Cryanowski, Frank, Young, & Shear, 2000; Crystal et al., 1994; Nolen-Hoeksema & Girgus, 1994; Poikolainen, Kanerra, 8: Lonnqvist. 1995). These findings have led researchers to suggest that boys and girls at different ages in adolescence may either face different challenges or that they may perceive them differently. The general aims of the present study were: 1) to identify the ages at which girls and boys begin to differ in the reported frequencies of stressful events as well as levels of a number of internalizing symptoms, 2) to determine whether the relationships between stressor frequency and internalizing symptoms are moderated by gender and age, and 3) to investigate whether there are gender and age differences in adolescents' perceived intensity of stressors. Stressors One reason that could account for adolescent girls reporting higher internalizing scores could be the number or type of stressors they experience. Stress in adolescence has been studied by a number of researchers (e.g., Ge, Lorenz, Conger, Elder, & Simons, 1994; Jose, Cafasso, & D'Anna, 1994; Jose, D'Anna, Cafasso, Bryant, Chiker, Gein, & Zhezmer, 1998; Tubman & Windle, 1995), and they have defined the stress process in a variety of ways. The chief goal in this study was to assess adolescents' responses to a stress measure that assessed a large number of different aspects of adolescent life. Some stress measures include relatively small numbers of items (see Aldwin, 1994; Cohen, Kessler, & Gordon, 1995), but the measure used here (from Jose et al., 1994) assessed 50 potentially stressful events. The stress measure used in this study was based on Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) Transactional Stress Model. Lazarus (1966) has defined stress as "difficult transactions between individuals and situations" (p. 5). Lazarus and Folkman's model stipulates that when an event occurs, it is first appraised as to whether it is threatening or not; this is called primary appraisal. If the event is considered to be potentially harmful to the person's wellbeing, then secondary appraisal occurs, in which one evaluates one's resources in relation to the stressor. Resources in this instance are determined by judgments about the degree of the threat, whether the threat can be avoided, and personal coping abilities. Jose and colleagues' stress scale (1994; 1998) assesses for 50 potential events whether the event happened, whether it was judged to be a problem or not (primary appraisal), and if it was judged to be a problem, how much of a problem it was assessed to be. …