Explaining childrens explanatory style with an optimismpessimism continuum

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Explaining childrens explanatory style with an
optimism-pessimism continuum

• Sandra Cortina, B.A.
• Daniel L. Clay, Ph.D
• University of Iowa

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Introduction

• Explanatory style leads people to respond in
  distinct ways at the psychological, behavioral,
  and biological levels (Chang, 2000). The
  potential instability of explanatory style
  provides an opportunity for researchers to
  investigate why some children respond more
  favorably to health-related situations than
  others. However, previous research has limited
  results to the pessimistic explanatory style.

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Purpose

• The purpose of this study was to examine the
  reliability, validity, and utility of a
  bi-directional measure of explanatory style (the
  Optimism-Pessimism Scale-Revised PSM-R).
  Children aged 11-15 years were asked to
  participate as previous research utilizing the
  PSM-R relied upon older respondents (Malinchoc,
  et al., 1996).

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Method

• Participants Sixty-three 6th-9th graders from
  predominantly White school districts completed
  surveys. Participants were 47 females and 16
  males (M 12.5 years, SD1.03 see Table I for
  specifics).
• Procedure Students were recruited from study
  hall and life skills classes in six junior high
  and one high school. All questionnaires were
  counterbalanced. Movie tickets were awarded to
  six random participants when the study was
  completed.

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Method (cont.)

• Measures
• -Revised Childrens Attributional Style
  Questionnaire (CASQ-R Kaslow Nolen-Hoeksema,
  1991 ).
• -Revised Optimism-Pessimism Scale
• (PSM-R Malinchoc, et al., 1996)
• -Childrens Depression Inventory (CDI Kovacs,
  1992)

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Results

• PSM-R Chronbach alphas
• positive items .88 negative items .97
• All correlations were in the expected direction
  (see Table II)
• Significant gender difference in number of
  self-reported depressive symptoms (p.01)
• Significant grade differences on CASQ-R and PSM-R
  (plt.05)
• Sex X Grade interaction not significant

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Implications Future Directions

• PSM-R evidenced sound internal, construct, and
  concurrent validity with children
• PSM-R may provide more stable assessment than
  CASQ-R
• Eighth grade turning point for explanations of
  positive events
• Confirmation of decline in positive event
  explanations needed
• Additional reliability and validity information
  needed for clinical and research use

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Table I Descriptives for measure, gender, and
grade

• Variable Mean SD Range N
• PSM-R
• CoPos 763.01 166.84 190.38-1300 63
• CoNeg 579.48 466.44 0.0-1592.03 63
• Overall 54.33 10.07 36-74 63
• CASQ-R
• Positive 7.62 2.03 1.0-11.0 58
• Negative 3.38 1.92 0.0-9.0 58
• Overall 4.52 2.81 -2.0-10 58
• CDI 10.9 8.03 0-36 62

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Table II Intercorrelations between measures and
age
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References

• Chang, E. (2000). Optimism pessimism
• Implications for theory, research, and
  practice.
• Washington, DC American Psychological
  Association.
• Kaslow, N., Nolen-Hoeksema (1991).
• Childrens Attributional Style
  Questionnaire-Revised.
• Unpublished manuscript. Emory University.
  Atlanta, GA.
• Kovacs, M. (1992). Childrens Depression
  Inventory
• Manual. North Tonawanda, NY Multi-health
  Systems,
• Inc.
• Malinchoc, M., Colligan, R. C., Offord, K. P.
  (1996).
• Assessing explanatory style in teenagers
  Adolescent
• norms for the MMPI optimism-pessimism
  scale. Journal
• of Clinical Psychology, 52 (3), 285-295.