Means?ends problem-solving skills, life stress, and social support as mediators of adjustment in the normative transition to high school

American Journal of Community Psychology, VoL 19, No. 2, 1991

Means-Ends Problem-Solving Skills, Life Stress, and Social Support as Mediators of Adjustment in the Normative Transition to High School I

Charles Barone, Ana I. Aguirre-Deandreis, and Edison J. Trickett 2 University of Maryland, College Park

Examined the transition of adolescents from middle school to high school through a longitudinal research design. Consistent with other studies, results indicate that the transition is associated with declines in grade point average and attendance, and that these changes persist or worsen over the course of the freshman year. Life stress and social support from family, friends, and school personnel each showed expected relationships with some outcome variables, though these varied in pattern and magnitude. Furthermore, there was some indication that these sources could be used in multivariate analyses in assessing their relationship to outcomes. Finally, means-ends problem-solving skills did not predict levels of posttransition support. Results are seen as sup- porting a differential model of the role of individual and environmental resources in the high school transition, especially with regard to the negative changes in grades and attendance and the pattern of correlations between social support sources and outcomes.

Life events and transitions have become recognized as important areas for psychological study both because of the possible threat they pose to psychological functioning (e.g., B. S. Dohrenwend & Dohrenwend, 1974;

1This paper represents work related to the master's theses of the first two authors. The study was supported by Grants No. G00-84-35022 and No. G00-87-30225 from the U.S. Department of Education. The authors thank the University of Maryland's Computer Science Center for the donation of computer time and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the manuscript.

ZAll correspondence should be addressed to Edison J. Trickett, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742.

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0091-0562/91/0400-0207506.50/0 @ 1991 Plenum Publishing Corporation

208 Barone, Aguirre-Deandreis, and Trickett

McGrath & Burkhart, 1983) and for the opportunity such changes offer for psychological growth and development (e.g., Felner, Farber, & Primavera, 1983). The purpose of the present study is to investigate the transition of adolescents from junior high or middle school into high school. This study has four broad goals: (a) to replicate the negative impact of the high school transition on grades and attendance reported by previous researchers (Blyth, Simmons, & Carlton-Ford, 1983; Felner, Primavera, & Cauce, 1981); (b) to assess the way in which pretransition life event stress (LES) may negatively impact on posttransition adjustment; (c) to assess the potential positive effects of social support in terms of its direct effects on posttransition adjustment and as a buffer of LES; and (d) to assess the degree to which interpersonal cognitive problem-solving skills affect the development of social support in a new setting. The following sections out- line the rationale and hypotheses relevant to these issues.

The High School Transition

Empirical studies suggest that several negative consequences may follow the normative transition to high school. Specifically, this transition has been associated with decrements in grade point average (GPA) (Blyth et al., 1983; Felner et al., 1981), attendance (Felner et al., 1981), and participation in extracurricular activities (Blyth et al., 1983). It has been argued that such changes may have long-term implications for the school-related adjustment of adolescents (Felner et al., 1981), given that low grades and poor attendance correlate highly with future high school dropout (U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 1975).

The above studies highlight the downside of the normative transition to high school. Obviously, not all students experience such declines in performance. For many, this transition marks the beginning of a period of significant educational, vocational, and social development. Thus, it is important for researchers to examine which factors heighten vulnerability to the negative outcomes reported above and to identify personal and social resources that assist adolescents in successfully negotiating this transition. The following sections speak to each of these issues.

Stressful Life Events and School Adaptation

One factor which may heighten vulnerability to this transition is the experience of stressful life events. The experience of single and multiple negative life events by adolescents and children has been associated with depression, anxiety, behavioral and academic problems at school, lower at-

High School Transition 209

tendance, and lower perceived school competence (Cauce, Hannan, & Sar- geant, 1987; Sandler & Block, 1979; Sterling, Cowen, Weissberg, Lotyc- zewski, & Boike, 1985; Swearingen & Cohen, 1985). Although none of these studies focused on how adolescents adjust differently to specific life events (e.g., transition to high school) as a function of the context of life events (present and past) in which such changes occur, it seems reasonable to argue that cumulative life event stress would negatively impact on the ability of students to meet the new demands presented by the high school transition (Monroe, 1982; Sterling et al., 1985). Thus, the present study examines the relationship between pretransition LES and the short-term posttransition adjustment of adolescents entering high school.

Social Support as a Mediating Variable

Conversely, one factor which may promote successful negotiation of transitions and buffer the negative effects of LES is social support (see Heller & Swindle, 1983; Vaux, 1988, for overviews). Although the extensive work in this area has focused mainly on adult populations, a number of studies with children and adolescents have reported a positive association between levels of social support and school-related adjustment (e.g., Cauce et al., 1987; Sandler, 1980), including that following the high school transition (Felner, Ginter, & Primavera, 1982). Current research suggests the importance of differentiating between support sources and evaluating their impact on adjustment separately (e.g., Cauce, Felner, & Primavera, 1982). Thus, the present study assesses social support from three sources: family, peers, and school personnel.

Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-Solving Skills as Mediators of Social Support

In most studies relating social support to various psychological outcomes, social support has been treated as an independent variable. How- ever, social support may also be seen as a consequence of individual characteristics (Felner et al., 1983; Mitchell, 1982). As yet, however, there has been no clear formulation of the skills necessary to develop and main- tain supportive interpersonal relationships, and no systematic study of this issue with adolescents has been reported.

One variable which may affect the level and type of social support perceived is interpersonal cognitive problem-solving skills (Spivack & Shure, 1974, 1976). These skills have been defined in terms of one's capability to resolve problems in a social context, and a large body of litera-


ture has emerged relating these skills to adjustment. This study focuses on one of five reported social problem-solving skills, that of means-ends thinking (MEPS).

Means-ends thinking focuses on the ability to interpret social situa- tions, develop insight into the possible obstacles to one's course of action, generate appropriate alternatives, show an awareness that goal attainment is not immediate, and show discretion in determining the appropriate time and place to undertake certain actions (Spivack & Shure, 1974). For adolescents experiencing a transition into a new high school, such skills seem to be an important component of adaptive behavior. Such thinking is supported by empirical studies linking MEPS skills to adjustment in adolescence (Platt, Spivack, Altman, Altman, & Peizer, 1974; Spivack & Levine, 1963). Thus, this study examines the relationship between means-ends problem solving and posttransition support.

Control Variables

The literature in many areas of research represented in the present study (high school transition, LES, social support) strongly suggests the need to attend to differences based on race and gender. For example, with respect to race, Felner et al. (1982) found that the impact of the transition to high school on GPA and attendance is particularly pronounced for black students.

Race and gender differences may also interact with different support sources. For example, females have been found to use friends and other informal sources of support more frequently than males and to perceive such sources of support as more helpful (Burke & Weir, 1978; Cauce et al., 1982; Douvan & Adelson, 1966; Vaux, 1985). Thus, race and gender are analyzed in relation to other independent and dependent variables both to explore their role in the present research and to inform their possible inclusion as control variables in hypotheses testing analyses. Furthermore, cognitive ability is controlled for in analyses using MEPS scores based on data showing low to moderate correlations between MEPS scores and intellectual factors (Platt & Spivack, 1975).

Dependent Variables

For the purposes of the present study, school adjustment is assessed by (a) grades, (b) attendance, (c) student perceived quality of school life, (d) state anxiety, and (e) student perceived difficulty with posttransition tasks. Adjustment is also assessed indirectly through students' perceived


levels of friend and school support. In so doing, the study broadens the range of dependent variables found in other studies to include school- defined (e.g., grades and attendance), adolescent defined (e.g., satisfaction with school), and environmentally related (friend and school support) outcomes.

Overview and Hypotheses

Most of the previous studies that have focused on school-based outcomes have employed a correlational design, which markedly restricts one's ability to draw inferences about causality. The use of a prospective design is proposed here as one means to at least partially clarify such ambiguity. Specifically, pretransition family support, pretransition peer support, and pretransition LES are used to predict posttransition adjustment outcomes, while pretransition social problem-solving skills are used to predict posttransition support. Given logistical limitations, school support and posttransition adjustment are analyzed cross-sectionally. It is expected that (a) the transition will result in a decrease in student GPA and attendance; (b) MEPS skills will be positively related to posttransition levels of peer and school support; (c) support will be positively related to posttransition adjustment and; (d) negative life events will be negatively related to posttransition adjustment.

While the literature on the interaction between social support and LES (often referred to as the "buffering hypothesis") is equivocal (see Cohen & Wills, 1985; Kessler & McLeod, 1985) and has generally not been explored with regard to adolescents, the exploratory hypothesis advanced here is that support is particularly effective in promoting adjustment for those individuals who report higher levels of LES. One additional exploration is to analyze the relationship between support and outcomes in multivariate analyses; that is, whether support from different sources, when analyzed in the context of each other, can each contribute uniquely in predicting adjustment.

METHOD

Sample

The sample was initially composed of 113 students who were participants in a larger study of school transitions; 103 students participated in the first two phases of the study (pretransition and 3 months posttran-


sition); ninth grade year-end follow-up data (GPA and attendance) were available for 82 students. Students were exiting from three middle schools in the Washington, DC, suburbs into three high schools in the same district. The sample was 49% female, 59% black, 28% white, 10% Hispanic, 1% Asian, and 2% other race. The average age of students in the sample was 14.2 years. Comparison analyses indicate that this sample was represen- tative of the larger student body of ninth graders in the three high schools in terms of age, race, gender, and standardized achievement scores.

Levels of parent education indicate that the sample varied widely in socioeconomic status (SES), reflecting the heterogeneity of the commu- nities from which the students come. Education levels for fathers and mothers were, respectively: 6.4/9.8% some high school or less, 39.7/46.7% high school graduates, 25.6/25.0% some college, 14.1/10.9% college graduates, 14.1/7.6% graduate or professional school.

After school system approval, randomly selected subsamples of eighth- grade students in the three middle schools were briefed on the project and asked to obtain parental consent for their participation. Following their graduation from eighth grade, students with parental consent were notified by mail and phone to schedule interviews. Students were interviewed by the researchers or trained assistants at their school, the University, or at their homes in the month preceding their entrances into high school. All parents and students were informed about the confidentiality of information, the voluntary nature of their participation, and their freedom to withdraw at any point they desired. Students were paid $10 for their participation.

Measures

Life Events. To measure negative life changes prior to high school entrance, students were administered the Junior High Life Experiences Sur- vey (JHLES; Swearingen & Cohen, 1985), a 39-item self-report instrument involving the rating of various life events (e.g., a new brother or sister being born, parent divorce) which have occurred in the previous 6 months. Events are rated as positive (on a scale of 1 to 3), negative (on a scale o f - 1 to -3), or neutral (scored 0). Only negative life events were included in scoring (Cauce et al., 1987; Swearingen & Cohen, 1985).

Means-Ends Problem Solving. The Means-Ends Problem-Solving Pro- cedure (MEPS; Spivack, Shure, & Platt, 1981) was used to measure interpersonal problem-solving skill. The MEPS consists of story roots that present an interpersonal situation and then present endings resolving the interpersonal conflict. The individual is required to make up a story con- necting the beginning of the story with the end. Responses are scored for


(a) means (discrete steps that enable the story protagonist to get closer to the story goal); (b) obstacles (anticipation of an actual or potential inter- ference with goal attainment); and (c) time (a specific reference to time) (Spivack et al., 1981). Scores in the present study reflect the sum of these scores (total score) across three story roots (the number necessary to achieve minimum reliability; Platt & Spivack, 1972; Spivack et al., 1981). The MEPS has been used with children, adolescents, and adults (Ford, 1982; Mitchell, 1982; Platt & Spivack, 1975; Plat te t al., 1974; Siegel, Platt, & Peizer, 1976) and has been shown to have interrater reliability ranging from .77 to .98 (Platt & Spivack, 1970). Factor analysis of the MEPS has revealed one dimension which has been labeled "means-ends thinking" (Platt & Spivack, 1973, 1975).

Perceived Social Support from Friends and Family. These variables were measured using the Perceived Social Support from Friends (PSS-Fr) and the Perceived Social Support from Family (PSS-Fa) scales (Procidano & Heller, 1983). Each of these is a 20-item scale consisting of declarative statements (e.g., "My friends give me the moral support I need") to which participants respond "yes," "no," or "don't know." The PSS-Fr and PSS-Fa scales have been shown to be homogeneous single-factor measures (Cron- bach alphas of .88 and .90, respectively). Preliminary analyses with college students indicate acceptable test-retest reliability of .80 (Tardy, 1985). The validity of these measures is indicated by their negative correlation with Langner symptom scores (Procidano & Heller, 1983). Though developed with college populations, the lack of any other such measures with acceptable reliability and validity warrants their inclusion.

Pelveived School Support. To assess school support, participants were administered the school support subscale of the Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS; Cauce et al., 1982). In this measure, students rate their per- ception of the helpfulness offered by each support source (e.g., teacher, guidance counselor) on a 5-point scale. The differential association of this scale with various adjustment indices (including scholastic) for adolescents supports its validity (Cauce et al., 1982, 1987).

Attitudes Toward School Perceived quality of school life was assessed using the Quality of School Life Scale (QSL; Epstein & McPartland, 1976). The QSL is a 27-item self-report measure normed on children and adolescents in Grades 4-12 which utilizes both true-false (e.g., "In class, I often count the minutes until it ends") and multiple-choice items. Internal reliability (KR-20) coefficients for secondary school students are .89 for the QSL as a whole. One year test-retest correlations range from about .36 to .47. Such figures are expected given the changing school circum- stances students experience from year to year, and are consistent with com- parable data on adult satisfaction with life (Epstein & McPartland, 1976).


State Anxiety. State anxiety was measured using the state subscale of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger, 1983). The state subscale of the STAI contains 20 statements (e.g., "I feel calm" or "I am worried") to which participants respond on a 4-point scale. The 60-day interval test-retest reliability coefficients for the state subscale of the STAI for high school students were .51 for males and .36 for females. Such values are expected given that the measure should reflect the respon- dents state of mind at the time of testing.

Posttransition Task Difficulty. To assess students' perceived difficulty with posttransition tasks, a new instrument was created, due to the lack of any such existing measure. The Transition Task Difficulty Index (TTDI) in- volved students rating the difficulty of eight transition tasks (e.g., adjusting to new rules for conduct and discipline), which were based on those reported by other researchers of school transitions (Brown & Armstrong, 1982; Cot- terell, 1982; Elias, Gara, & Ubriaco, 1985; Mitman & Packer, 1982). Tasks were rated on a 4-point scale, with choices ranging between very difficult and very easy. Factor analyses revealed three factors which were labeled: (a) New Social Environment, (b) Scholastic, and (c) New Peer Relations. In- formation on these analyses is presented in the Results section.

Nonverbal Cognitive Ability. Data from the California Achievement Test was included as a control for effects of intellectual ability on MEPS.

Academic Performance. Data on student's grade point averages and attendance were obtained for students' eighth-grade year, for the first two marking periods of ninth grade, and for the full ninth-grade year. GPA and attendance changes were calculated by subtracting students' ninth- grade GPA and attendance from their respective eighth-grade values; half- year n in th -grade a t t endance was doubled before per forming these calculations so that it could be compared to full-year eighth-grade rates.

Procedure

Data from research participants were collected at two points in time. Time 1 data were collected in the month preceding the transition to high school, when the JHLES (Swearingen & Cohen, 1985), the MEPS (Spivack & Shure, 1976), and the PSS-Fa and the PSS-Fr (Procidano & Heller, 1983) were given. Time 2 data collection took place in November and December of participants' first year of high school. At this time, they completed the school support subscale of the SSRS (Cauce et al., 1982), the QSL (Epstein & McPartland, 1976), the state subscale of the STAI (Spielberger, 1983), the q-'-FDI, the PSS-Fa and PSS-Fr scales, and the MEPS. Data on students' GPAs and attendance were collected from school files.


RESULTS

Results are in five subsections: (a) instrument reliability and validity, (b) control analyses, (c) eighth grade/ninth grade changes in GPA and attendance, (d) correlates of posttransition adjustment indices, (e) multivariate analyses (interactions and multiple regressions).

Instrument Validity and Reliability

Interrater reliability for the MEPS found the correlations between two scorers for randomly selected protocols was .89. The correlation between Time 1 and Time 2 scores was .55. Analyses indicated no main effects for interviewer gender, or interaction effects for gender of interviewer by gender of participant° No analyses were conducted for race effects as both interviewers were white.

The TTDI was scored by adding students' numbered responses to items on three subscales which emerged in a varimax rotated factor analysis of the eight items. The criterion for item inclusion in a factor was a loading of .55 or more, with no qualifying item loading higher on any other factor. Three factors emerged: (a) the New Social Environment factor (accounted for 29.8% of variance; included questions on the difficulty of adjusting to a new school building and class schedule, getting along with adult staff, getting along with other students, and adjusting to new rules for conduct and discipline); (b) the Scholastic TTDI factor (16.7% of variance; included items related to the difficulty of schoolwork and the transition in general); and (c) the New Peer Relations factor (13.1% of variance; included items related to the difficulties associated with dating and peer pressure).

Factor analyses and internal reliability analyses performed on the PSS-Fa, PSS-Fr, SSRS, and QSL all yielded values consistent with those reported by their authors (i.e., single-factor scales, with Cronbach alphas and KR-20's > .75). Intercorrelations of the dependent variables are presented in Table I.

Control Analyses

All measures were examined for possible race and/or gender differences. Though no race differences between blacks and whites were found on any of the variables, gender emerged as an important factor in three analyses. Females reported significantly greater perceived support from friends, t(108) = 4.52, p < .001; reported less difficulty with new environment tasks, t(119) = 3.06, p < .01; and experienced less negative changes


Table I. Intercorrelations for All Dependent Variables a

Var i ab l e 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. 8 th /9 th -g rade ° G P A change - .48 a - .32 a .08 .15 .09 - .08 2. 8 th /9 th -g rade b a t t e n d a n c e - .20 - .17 .05 .05 .15 3. Qua l i t y of school life - - .29 ̀ / - .49 a - .22 c .15 4. S ta te anxie ty - .38 d .22 c .06 5. N e w socia l e n v i r o n m e n t t ask - - .29 a - .01

diff icul ty 6. Scholas t ic t a sk diff icul ty - .17 7. N e w p e e r re la t ions t ask

diff iculty

an varies between 114 and 120 depending on available data. bFor practical purposes, only half-year ninth-grade data are used here. Cp < .0s.

dp < .01.

in GPA, t(113) = 2.24, p < .05, than did males. Thus, gender was used as a covariate in analyzing the relationship between friend support and the dependent variables of G P A change and the New Social Environment factor. Finally, A N O V A analyses revealed no significant gender/race interactions on any of the variables.

The MEPS was significantly positively correlated with both academic achievement measured at the end of eighth grade, r(104) = .26, p < .01, and nonverbal cognitive ability, r(104) -- .26, p < .01. Thus it was decided to use G P A and nonverbal cognitive ability as control variables in all analyses including the MEPS as a predictor.

GPA and Attendance Changes

To test the hypothesized eighth to ninth grade decreases in G P A and attendance, repeated measures t tests were per formed comparing eighth- grade and ninth-grade G P A and attendance across all students. For half- year data, these analyses indicate that students did experience a significant drop in G P A from 2.58 to 2.19, t(114) = 6.92, p < .001, and a significant increase in absenteeism from 8.62 to 10.28 days absent per year, t ( l14) = 1.90, p < .05. Thus, the first set of hypotheses was confirmed.

Ninth graders also experienced a continued decline in a t tendance f rom the first half of the year to the year 's end, from 10.28 days per year to 12.87, t(80) = 3.67, p < .001. There was a small nonsignificant decline in G P A from first semester to second semester. At the end of ninth grade, 73.1% of students showed a decline from their eighth grade GPA, with 20.6% of students showing a drop of 1.0 (a full letter grade) or more. With


Table II, Intercorrelations of Independent Variables With Dependent Variables a

Transition task difficulty factors

New Atten- Social New

GPA dance State Environ- Peer Variable change change QSL total anxiety ment Scholastic Relations

Negative -.06 .07 -.21 b .01 life events impact

Perceived .20 .00 ,41 c -.33 c family support

Perceived -.02 .00 .16 -.17 b friend support

Perceived -.03 -,06 .45 c -.16 b school support

.18 b -.04 -.03

-.34 c -.12 .04

-.24 c -. I4 -. 15

-.17 b -.05 .14

an varies between 104 and 119 depending on available data. bp < .05. Cp < .01.

regards to at tendance, 65.6% experienced a decline, with 15.6% showing a decline of 10 days or more.

Correlates of Outcome Variables

Correlat ional analyses conducted to examine the relationship of negative LES and social suppor t to post transi t ion ou tcome indices ( G P A and a t tendance changes, quality of school life, state anxiety, and perceived difficulty of post t ransi t ion tasks) are repor ted in Table II. These analyses yielded several significant results.

Life Event Stress. The rated impact of negative life events significantly corre la ted with Q S L Tota l and the New Envi ronment T T D I factor. As hypothesized, those report ing higher LES were generally less satisfied with school and were experiencing greater difficulty in meet ing post t ransi t ion challenges related to being in a new environment . LES was no t corre la ted with the remaining ou tcome variables.

Social Support. As seen in Table II, many support variables p roved to be significant correlates of Q SL Total, state anxiety, and the New En- v i ronment T I ' D I factor. Social support f rom family and school was invariab- ly associa ted with positive o u t c o m e s on these indices; namely, g rea te r satisfaction with school, less in-school anxiety, and less difficulty with new


envi ronment post transi t ion tasks. The Scholastic and New Peer Rela t ions factors were no t predic ted by any of the suppor t variables.

Perceived suppor t f rom friends presented some notable exceptions. First, while showing a similar pat tern of correlat ion with state anxiety and new envi ronment task difficulty, only the correlat ion o f fr iend suppor t with state anxiety was significant af ter control l ing for gender (using an A N - C O V A ) . 3 Second, the correlat ion between friend support and Q S L Total was not statistically significant.

As can be seen , no p r e d i c t o r s o f G P A o r a t t e n d a n c e c h a n g e s emerged. The correlat ion between family support and full-year n inth-grade G P A change was in the predicted direction, but did not meet convent ional statistical significance, r(104) = .20, p = .07. 4

MEPS as a Predictor of Posttransition Support. The M E P S was not significantly corre la ted with any of the sources o f suppor t following the transition. This was true whether G P A and cognitive ability were used as covariates or not.

Multivariate Analyses

To test the buffering hypothesis, multiple regressions were used to test the interact ion o f social support and LES for each dependen t variable (where LES was entered first, the source o f support second, and the interact ion term third). N o n e of the interactions was significant. Thus, there was no suppor t for the not ion that social support would buffer the effects o f LES on post transi t ion ou tcomes (see Foo tno t e 4).

To assess the potential distinct contr ibut ions of varying sources o f social suppor t to outcomes, multiple regressions were also used to explore whe ther sources o f support analyzed together would show any multivariate effects. Each source of support was entered simultaneously in the regres- sion equation, and separate analyses were done for each dependen t vari-

3As noted, control analyses suggested the need to control for gender in assessing the relationship between friend support and the New Social Environment TTDI factor, given the former's relationship to both of the other variables.

4post-hoc exploratory analyses were run to analyze whether support might buffer the effects of other risk factors on GPA and attendance change. Eighth-grade attendance, eighth-grade GPA, and gender were selected as possible risk factors. Results were analyzed similarly to those using LES and each of the support sources; the former two were used in analyses only with their respective eighth-grade/ninth-grade change indices as dependent variables, while gender was analyzed in relation to both ninth-grade attendance and GPA change. Of 12 analyses, one, involving school support and eighth-grade attendance, showed a significant interaction wherein school support attenuated the decrease in attendance for those with low eighth-grade attendance. Results are presented here to inform the reader, but are not treated due to inflated Type I error.


able. Of seven analyses, one showed multivariate effects. School support and family support showed unique effects in predicting QSL, R 2 = .56, F = 14.77, p < .001. Thus, there is some support for the idea that perceived social support constructs uniquely predict outcomes, although the number of analyses performed warrant some caution because of possible Type I error.

DISCUSSION

The intent of this study was to examine the impact of the high school transition on grades and attendance, to assess the role of life events and peer, family, and school support as predictors of posttransition outcomes, and to explore the role of means-ends problem solving in the mobilization of posttransition support. This discussion examines each of these points in turn and attempts to integrate the present findings into a more general conceptualization of the high school transition.

The first set of hypotheses, which predicted negative changes in GPA and attendance, was confirmed. Compared to their eighth-grade performance, students experienced significant decreases in GPA and attendance both halfway through and at the completion of their ninth-grade year. These results and others (Blyth et al., 1983; Felner et al., 1982) suggest that there are negative consequences for students in school performance following their transition into high school, and that these changes persist or worsen over the course of the ninth-grade year.

It should be noted that decreases in GPA may reflect less of changes in student performance or academic adjustment than more demanding criteria of what constitutes a certain letter grade. Thus, while one interpretation is that the general challenge of entering high school negatively impacted on students' academic performance, it is also plausible that high school teachers employ tougher grading standards than their eighth-grade counterparts. Although this argument is plausible, the picture is hardly clear.

First, there was also a significant drop in attendance which does not lend itself to this interpretation. Second, declines were not universal, and degree of change varied widely. This suggests that other factors, some of which are discussed subsequently, mediate these outcomes.

The most important factor in posttransition academic adjustment in this study was gender: Females showed less of a decrease in GPA than did males. The meaning of these findings is unclear, although it is also worth noting that females also had higher pretransition and posttransition GPAs than did males. Females also reported less difficulty with new social en-


vironment tasks than did males, which suggests that gender is a significant factor in posttransition adjustment in a more general sense. It is difficult to compare these results with those of other transition studies. In a study of the concerns of students entering middle school, Mitman and Packer (1982) reported that differences between male and female were not significant; other studies which have examined potential student stressors following normative school transfers do not report analyses of gender differences (Brown & Armstrong, 1982; Cotterell, 1982; Elias, Gara, & Ubriaco, 1985).

In contrast to the results of Felner et al. (1981), race was not an important factor in GPA and attendance change or, for that matter, any of the variables studied here. One explanation for these results is that this study and others may have sampled from black and white populations that differed in varying degrees with regards to SES, community demographics, or high school environment.

Life events and social support also failed to show significant correlations with GPA and attendance change, although the results with regard to family support may warrant further investigation. One explanation for the lack of results in this area is methodological in that the use of change scores can result in ceiling effects which restrict the range of variability and thus reduce power. However, the use of covariance models, the alter- native to change scores, also failed to produce any significant relationships (see Footnote 3). Thus, future research should attempt to uncover other risk factors in this transition.

However, LES and support variables did correlate, to varying degrees, with other posttransition outcomes. LES proved to be the least potent of these variables. The lack of results related to LES here is not a complete surprise given that, as noted, previously reported relationships between LES and outcome indices have been low to moderate. Perhaps such measures are too general, in that some events are more important in adjustment than others and some sources of LES may have a particular bear- ing on scholastic adjustment. The size of the present sample prevents the exploration of such hypotheses.

It should be noted also that other studies in this area have not looked at LES before a singular stressful life change. Thus, it is plausible that in this study, the day-to-day challenges presented by the new high school changed the character of LES students were experiencing. This contention is supported, but not proved, by significant relationships between anxiety and reported difficulty with new social environment and scholastic tasks.

While the social support variables also failed to predict GPA or attendance change, the data indicate that social support is a potentially important resource in relation to other school-based outcomes. Family support showed the most consistent pattern of strong, beneficial relation-


ships with outcome indices (QSL, anxiety, and difficulty with new social environment tasks). Such results make intuitive sense and corroborate the informal reports of teachers. The next step, which parallels avenues of exploration with other sources of support as well, may be to identify more specific kinds of family support, explore the types of family environments that engender such support, and identify the processes that lead adolescents to perceive their families as more supportive.

School support showed the same general pattern of results as family support and, not surprisingly, had its strongest relationship with perceived quality of school life. Again, such results have an intuitive appeal. One interpretation is that the efforts of school personnel to assist students have a tangible payoff in students' attitudes toward school. However, given that school support was assessed at about the same time as the outcome variables, an equally plausible explanation is that successful student adjustment increases the possibility that supportive relationships will develop, or that other factors, such as student conduct , influence both of these variables. As pointed out earlier, longitudinal studies offer a means to elucidate such processes.

The inconsistent relationships between friend support and adjustment warrant further consideration. First, it should be pointed out that while some studies have found peer support associated with positive adjustment (e.g., Cauce et al., 1987), other studies have found peer support to be a negative factor (Cauce et al., 1982; Vaux, 1981). Taken together, these findings present a confusing picture of the role of peer support in school-related and other types of outcomes.

One possible explanation is that the discrepancies between these studies is a function of the different measurement procedures employed, which may tap different support-related constructs. Another explanation is that peer support has different adjustment-related implications as a function of other peer group characteristics. For example, support from delin- quent peers may have different adaptational value than support from nondelinquent peers. It may thus be advisable to adopt a less monolithic and more contextually defined model of support which links support dif- ferentially to adjustment criteria as a function of other peer group characteristics.

Considered together, the data on each of these groups (i.e., family, school, and peer) suggest the utility of distinguishing between different support sources. First, the low to moderate correlations between the percep- tions of support from different sources indicate that adolescents are able to make discriminating assessments about the support they receive from significant others in their lives. Second, multivariate analyses suggest that support variables can account for unique proportions of variance in out-


come indices. Such findings encourage the development of multivariate models that attempt to delineate the relationship between multiple support sources and adjustment-related outcomes. A final consideration in this study was to explore whether MEPS skills might lead to higher levels of posttransition support. Despite the conceptual fit between MEPS skills and support mobilization for adolescents entering a new environment, the present findings do not support the idea that such skills are important in support mobilization.

There are a number of possible reasons for the lack of findings. One is that there was not a long enough time in the present research design for students to fully develop supportive relationships in their new setting. A second is that social problem-solving skills as measured by the MEPS are not important in mobilizing social support. A third issue revolves around low test-retest reliability of the MEPS found in the present study (r = .55), which is consistent with the .43-.64 range reported by its authors (Spivack et al., 1981). Such results suggest that there may not be adequate stability in the construct as measured for it to be conceptualized as a stable quality over a 2- to 3-month period.

In summary, a number of general points follow from the present study. First, there is further support for the findings of previous studies suggesting that the high school transition has immediate negative consequences for student grades and attendance. However, close analysis reveals that such change is variable across students, rather than uniform. Further- more, while the stress and support variables in this study predicted some outcome variables, reliable correlates of changes in GPA and attendance are as yet elusive. Thus, further study of this issue would benefit from more careful consideration of specific risk factors, stressors, tasks, and potentially beneficial resources.

Second, there is some support for the idea that general LES may heighten vulnerability to distinct life transitions, but that such influence, at least in this case, tends to be modest. Third, there is evidence for the idea that support from various sources can play an important role in adolescent adjustment, and that there is an advantage to differentiating between sources of support in predicting outcomes. Fourth, there was no support for the idea that mean-ends problem solving plays a role in support mobilization, suggesting the possible need to consider other types of individual aptitudes that may mediate the development of supportive relationships.

Some caution is warranted in interpreting the results from the present study. First, the direction of causality in many of the above relationships is unclear. This is partly because of the cross-sectional nature of some of the analyses (e.g., those involving school support) and partly because of


the difficulty in disentangling the complicated web of relationships between variables (e.g., support, stress, and adjustment).

Also, some of the comparisons may have been influenced by seasonal factors (i.e., the time of school year at which different data points were collected). Some checks on this were built into the study. For example, changes in GPA and attendance cannot be attributed to seasonality as full- year eighth-grade GPA and attendance were compared to both half-year and full-year ninth-grade values. For other comparisons, seasonality is not controlled for (summer social support is used to predict fall adjustment). Although this latter drawback is inherent in research that attempts to look at the relationship between variables occurring in close proximity, the employment of longitudinal designs with multiple data points (such as cross-lag panel studies) would clarify many of these issues. Such designs are recommended as work in this area continues.

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Means?ends problem-solving skills, life stress, and social support as mediators of adjustment in the normative transition to high school