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Stressful events compromise control strivings during a major life transition

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Abstract

Prior research on stressful events has largely ignored their potential impact on motivational processes. This study prospectively examined the association of a stressful event with control strivings in the school-to-work transition. Five waves of data on stressful events, control strategies, and potential mediating variables were collected from an adolescent sample in Berlin (N = 420) during the year before high school graduation. The occurrence of a stressful event (death of family member, parent divorce) predicted a decline in general career-related and specific apprenticeship-related control strivings. This association was mediated by a decline in control-related means-ends beliefs. Proximity to the deadline of graduation exacerbated this association for apprenticeship-seeking control strivings, but this effect was buffered by usage of selective secondary control strategies (cognitive strategies to enhance commitment to a goal). Thus, stressful events can exacerbate challenges and require additional means of control striving.

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Notes

  1. Students also reported whether they experienced a personal illness, the illness of a family member or other important person, personal relationship troubles, relationship troubles between one’s parents, a family move, or another event that the respondent could specify. However, the large proportion of students reporting these events (over 30% in some cases) and anecdotal evidence from during the questionnaire sessions suggested that students interpreted these more ambiguous categories to include minor events (e.g., a cold) as well as major stressors.

  2. Corresponding control-related agency beliefs (beliefs that one has access to particular means) were also assessed for both effort and ability.

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Acknowledgement

Research reported in this article was supported by the research grant He 3068/3-1 (PIs: Jutta Heckhausen, Olaf Köller) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), and by the Max-Planck Award for International Cooperation bestowed to the second author and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

The authors would like to thank Susan Charles for her statistical advice and Claudia Haase for her comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, 3340 Social Ecology II, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA

    Michael J. Poulin & Jutta Heckhausen

  2. Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine, University of Michigan and VA Ann Arbor, 300 N. Ingalls, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Michael J. Poulin

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  1. Michael J. Poulin
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  2. Jutta Heckhausen
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Correspondence to Michael J. Poulin.

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Poulin, M.J., Heckhausen, J. Stressful events compromise control strivings during a major life transition. Motiv Emot 31, 300–311 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-007-9077-6

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