Peer-social attributional predictors of socio-emotional adjustment in early adolescence: a two-year longitudinal study

A two-year prospective study (n=82) examined the extent to which adolescents’ attributional style for peer-related events predicts socio-emotional adjustment. Peer-social attributions were assessed using rating scales on three dimensions (locus, stability, and globality). Three attributional composites were derived: two generality scales measured the extent to which positive and negative events were attributed to stable and/or global factors, while the locus composite indicated the relative absence of a self-serving bias. Outcome measures at both time points were loneliness, victimisation, and depression. Controlling for Time 1 adjustment, longitudinal analyses revealed no significant predictive relations between the attributional variables and Time 2 adjustment variables. However, a post hoc analysis revealed that a combined generality composite (i.e. attribution of both positive and negative events to stable/global factors) predicted depression and loneliness despite not being concurrently associated with these variables. This finding raises the possibility that attributional style in this domain may have unique associations with emotional adjustment.