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This exploratory qualitative case study investigates how graduate students in education experience, attribute, and combat academic boredom. Three areas of concern are addressed: (a) the contributing factors to boredom, (b) how attributional style (internal vs. external) relates to coping with boredom, and (c) the differences between combating class-related boredom and learning-related boredom. Results showed that the onset of boredom was mostly influenced by a lack of interest, lack of utility value, and autonomy frustration. This study extended the existing literature by discovering an interaction between students' attributional style and their coping strategies for boredom during classroom instruction. Specifically, students who argued that the instructor should hold more responsibility for boredom in class tended to take avoidance coping as their primary strategy (e.g., doodling). By comparison, students who opted to approach the problem positively (e.g., taking notes) are prone to attribute internally. Attribution does not appear to have a mediating effect on the relationship between experience of boredom and coping strategies for learning-related boredom. Implications for graduate and adult education and findings in the context of recent theoretical frameworks are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study provides psychometric support for the use of the Children's Attributional Style Interview-II (CASI-II) to assess attributional style for positive and negative events with young adolescents. The paper-and-pencil version of the CASI-II was administered to a sample of 546 seventh- and eighth-grade students attending a Midwest suburban middle school (50% women, 54% white, 22% Hispanic, 10% Asian American, and 14% other). A multilevel confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated a factor structure consistent with attributional style theory and evidence for internal consistency reliability and temporal stability. Construct and convergent validity were strong. Dimensional subscale scores as well as composite scores for both positive and negative events showed adequate reliability and strong validity evidence. These results offer confidence for testing theory-driven predictions related to attributional style for both positive and negative events, as well as specific attributional dimensional patterns, using the CASI-II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the role of symptom attribution in treatment-seeking behaviours, survey results of 1356 veterans (age = 38–72 years) were analysed. Controlling for symptom frequency, significant relationships were found for specialist and psychological-related consultations. Those who favoured psychological explanations for symptoms were more likely to attend specialist and psychology-related consultations and filled significantly more prescriptions than people who predominantly explained symptoms by situational factors (normalisers). Veterans who favoured somatic explanations attended more general practitioner consultations than normalisers. Attributional style should be considered part of the constellation of factors influencing healthcare usage. Normalisers, the predominant group, used fewest health services and filled fewest prescriptions; this may have important implications for healthcare considering their tendency to minimise or downplay symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study aims to understand mediators and moderators of the relationship between stalking victimization and depression. Based on the reformulated learned helplessness theory, which emphasizes the role of internal, global, and stable attributions for negative events in the development of depression, we predicted that the association between stalking victimization and depression would be mediated by attributions for the stalking and characterological self-blame. We predicted that the association between stalking victimization and helplessness attributions or characterological self-blame, in turn, would be moderated by gender, sex-role identity, and length of stalking. Specifically, we hypothesized that female victims, victims possessing a feminine sex-role identity, and victims experiencing longer stalking episodes would be more likely to experience depression in comparison with male victims, victims possessing a masculine sex-role identity, and victims experiencing shorter stalking episodes. The results indicated that global attributions for the cause of stalking significantly mediated the relationship between stalking victimization and depression. The results for stable attributions, internal attributions, and characterological self-blame were nonsignificant. Furthermore, gender, sex-role identity, and length of stalking did not moderate the association between stalking and attributional style or characterological self-blame. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: High prevalence of mental health issues in the twenty-first century accounts for a lion share in the worldwide burden of disease. There is an alarming decrease in the onset of half of the mental health problems. Hence, it is necessary to explore the current situation and figure out the causes and preventive measures as well as the appropriate mental health enhancement measures. Individual characteristics, such as thinking patterns and perception, have an impact on the mental health. Attributional style is one source of 'cognitive vulnerability' which influences mental health disorders. Therefore, the present study examines whether there are any variations in the mental health of children with different attributional styles. Methods: The current research adopted a cross-sectional research design and selected 150 school going students [74 males and 76 females] between 10-13 years of age as participants. The Child Attributional Style Questionnaire [CASQ], Satisfaction with Life Scale-Children [SWLS-C], Brief Resilience Scale, and Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale [RCADS] are used to gather information. Results: The results indicated that children with a pessimistic attributional style experienced more depression and generalized anxiety than children with other two attributional styles. In terms of gender differences in mental health, female students with pessimistic attributional style significantly differed from their counterparts on depression [χ² [2] = 10.131, p = 0.006] and separation anxiety [χ² [2] = 6.456, p = 0.040]. Conclusion: Attributional style seems to have a significant role in depression and anxiety in female children. Although male children did not show any statistically significant results, they were more likely to be pessimistic in terms of their attributional style, which makes them vulnerable to mental health issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The current study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of an attributional style measure that can be administered remotely, to people who have multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: A total of 495 participants with MS were recruited. Participants completed the Attributional Style Questionnaire-Survey (ASQ-S) and two comparison measures of cognitive variables via postal survey on three occasions, each 12 months apart. Internal reliability, test- retest reliability and congruent validity were considered. Results: The internal reliability of the ASQ-S was good (α > 0.7). The test-retest correlations were significant, but failed to reach the 0.7 set. The congruent validity of the ASQ-S was established relative to the comparisons. Conclusions: The psychometric properties of the ASQ-S indicate that it shows promise as a tool for researchers investigating depression in people with MS and is likely sound to use clinically in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between attributional style (AS), problem-solving orientation (PSO), and gender on depressive symptoms was investigated in Egyptian adolescents with visual impairment (VI). After being written in Braille, measures of AS, PSO, and depression were administered to 110 adolescents with VI, ages 12–17 years, from a residential school for pupils with VI. Regression analyses showed that gender, negative general (NG) attributions, and negative problem-solving orientation (NPSO) were the strongest predictors of depressive symptoms in adolescents with VI, whereas negative internal (NI) attributions and avoidant problem-solving orientation (APSO) were weak predictors. The findings are discussed in relation to different perspectives and models of depression, particularly the stress-diathesis model. The theory that these cognitive variables are core constituents of a cognitive diathesis model of depression in individuals with VI is not supported by this study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Youths with high (N = 52) or low cognitive vulnerability (N = 48) for depression were selected from a larger sample (N = 515) of students (7-10 years old), based on their attributional style (AS), negative cognitions (NC), and/or self-competence (SC). Long-term effects of cognitive vulnerabilities on depressive symptoms were examined in a 3-year, three-wave, multi-informant, longitudinal design. Three findings emerged. First, some empirical overlap exists among these three types of cognitive diatheses, especially between NC and SC. Second, the combination of AS, NC, and SC had a significant (but diminishing) relationship to depressive symptoms at 6, 18, and 30 months, primarily due to NC and SC, not AS. Third, interactions between cognitive risk and life events were not significant, suggesting an additive type of diathesis-stress model for depression in young adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paranoia has been hypothesized to be negatively correlated with self-esteem. However, hypotheses differ about how low self-esteem might produce paranoia. The paranoia as defense model views paranoia as a defensive reaction against low self-esteem. In contrast, the paranoia as expression model views paranoia in part as a reflection of low self-esteem. In the current study, paranoia was negatively associated with global explicit self-esteem, self-competence, self-liking and self-serving attributional style, but unassociated with implicit self-esteem as measured with the Implicit Association Test. In contrast, facets of narcissism, which also have been hypothesized to be associated with defensive self-processing, were associated with defensiveness. Overall, these results suggest that paranoia is better represented by the expression model. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The psychometric properties of two paper-and-pencil versions of the Children’s Attributional Style Interview (i.e., CASI-I and CASI-II) were evaluated in a sample of 166 third and fourth graders and a sample of 245 sixth and seventh graders. The results demonstrated strong internal consistency reliability, convergent validity, and a factor structure that was consistent with theory in both samples. Furthermore, analyses demonstrated adequate evidence of the reliability and validity of several dimensional subscale scores and the composite measures of attributional style for both positive and negative events. These results suggest the utility of the CASI in research testing specific attributional predictions of cognitive theories of depression with the dimensional subscale scores. They further add to the literature by demonstrating item-level factor analytic support for a children’s attributional style measure and the feasibility of administration sizes larger than previously tested, which add to the utility of the CASI in large-scale research designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learned helplessness behavior and cognitions were assessed in 95 kindergarten. age children during a series of impossible puzzle trials followed by a solvable puzzle trial. Latent growth curve analysis revealed reliable individual differences in the trajectories of children's affect, motivation, and self-cognitions over time. Parents' reports of negative life events, harsh/negative parenting, and warm/positive parenting were associated with their children's learned helplessness behavioral trajectories and outcomes over the course of the puzzle trials. Results support speculations about the developmental origins of depressive explanatory or attributional style in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study empirically investigated the role of adaptive and maladaptive components of humour in the relation between attributional style and dysphoria. Four hundred eighteen students (134 male, 282 female; 2 respondents did not indicate gender) completed questionnaires measuring attributional style, humour styles and depressive symptoms. Among men and women, higher levels of affiliative and self-enhancing humour, and lower levels of self-defeating humour, were each associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Additionally, higher levels of affiliative humour provided a buffer against the deleterious effects of a negative attributional style in men, but not women. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: A Bristol general practice study demonstrated the extent to which patients’ attribution style influences psychological diagnostic case rates. We pursue this issue and several implications in this Australian study. Method: A survey was undertaken of six general practices in Sydney, and involving more than 900 routine general practice patients. Subjects completed questionnaires assessing personality styles observed in those with clinical depression, attributional response (i.e. ‘psychological’, ‘somatic’ and ‘normalizing’) to three somatic cues, state depression, lifetime depression, use of antidepressant medication, and recourse to professional help. Results: Responders attributing psychological explanations to the somatic cues had the highest state and lifetime depression rates, viewed their depression as more likely to be a ‘disorder’ and were more likely to have received treatment for depression. Those with a personality style of ‘anxious worrying’ reported increased morbidity across all depression variables, but personality did not make attributional style redundant in multivariate analyses. Conclusions: Interpreting somatic cues in a psychological way is associated with higher rates of reported depression and increased recourse to depression treatment. Thus, a normalizing response style may make depression recognition and detection difficult. Study findings challenge the capacity of self-report measures to detect depression, especially in general practice settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationship between work-specific cognitive style, and measures of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and involvement. One hundred working adults completed the revised Occupational Attributional Style Questionnaire and three validated measures of work attitudes. In general, cognitive style showed few associations with demographic variables, occupational status, and salary. Internality and perception of personal control over positive outcomes were positively correlated with job commitment, involvement, and satisfaction, a finding that appears to generalize across different occupational groups. The discussion considers the relative merits of attributional style vs. locus of control methodology in assessing work-related cognitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]