ATTRIBUTIONAL STYLE AND PARENTAL REARING AS PREDICTORS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS

Multiple regression analyses were used to determine the unique and combined prediction of psychological well-being by attributional style and parental rearing patterns. It was found that these were largely independent of each other, with both providing unique prediction. Specifically, attributing bad outcomes to global, stable and internal causes, and good outcomes to external, unstable causes, is associated with poorer psychological well-being. The latter is independently related to reporting parents as rejecting, overinvolved and not supportive. The model which predicted the relationship between parental rearing and psychological adjustment to be mediated by attributional style had to be rejected.