Antecedents and Consequences of Agentic and Communal Stressful Life Events in Adolescence

The relationships among frequency and intensity measures of agentic and communal stressful life events was examined on the sample of 265 subjects ranging in age from 11 to 14 years. Also, the relations of the two measures of agentic and communal stressful life events (intensity and frequency) with several antecedents (age, sex, personality traits) and consequences (coping styles and school grades) were examined. The results obtained show that intensity and frequency measures represent different aspects of stressful experience. The relationships among variables are different in boys and girls, especially with regard to the types of stressful life events (agentic and communal). The participants' age is significantly positively related to the frequency of agentic stressful events and overall frequency. Boys have significantly higher scores on the frequency of agentic and the frequency of overall stressful life events than girls. Eysenck's personality traits better predict agentic stressful events and frequency measures on the subsample of boys, whereas they better predict communal stressful events and intensity measures on the subsample of girls. Furthermore, the intensity and frequency measures of agentic and communal stressful life events are related to different coping styles. Girls demonstrate greater differentiation in utilizing certain coping styles under the influences of various stressful events. In both subsamples, the frequency of agentic stressors is prospectively negatively related to school grades.