Event Controllability Moderates the Relation Between Perceived Control and Adjustment to Stressors

This study assessed whether the relations between perceived past, present, and future control and adjustment to stressors was moderated by the objective controllability of the stressor among 637 undergraduate students. Both past and future control were associated with more distress and less self-reported growth when events were less objectively controllable, and were generally unrelated to adjustment when events were more objectively controllable. Event controllability did not moderate the relations between present control and distress; present control was the only type of control consistently associated with better adjustment. Control perceptions may be more adaptive if they better match objective stressor controllability.