Stressful Life Events and Irrational Beliefs as Predictors of Psychological Wellbeing among Early Adolescent Girls in Pune, India

Abstract

Literature reveals that stressful life events and irrational beliefs are negatively correlated with  Psychological Wellbeing characterized with negative indicators, such as, anxiety, depression. Does similar relationship is evident referring to positive indicators of Psychological Wellbeing with a sample of early adolescent girls? In this study, predictor variables are stressful life events and irrational beliefs and criterion variable is psychological wellbeing; the model with positive indicators of Psychological Wellbeing by Ryff (1989).Tests used were Adolescent Life Event Stress Scale (ALESS) by Aggarwal, Prabhu, Anand and Kotwal (2007), Child and Adolescent Scale of Irrationality (CASI) by Bernard and Cronin (1999), and Psychological Wellbeing Scale for Adolescents (PWBSA) developed by the researchers. One hundred and forty two girls from eighth standard from Pune city, India, participated in the study. Result showed family events and uncontrollable events have low but significant negative correlation only with Psychological Wellbeing. No significant correlation between total Stressful Life Events and Psychological Wellbeing is evident. But Irrational Beliefs (r= -.52) and its sub dimensions showed significant negative and moderate correlation with Psychological Wellbeing. Simple regression analysis indicated that total irrationality accounted for the 27.8 % of variation in the Psychological Wellbeing. Results are discussed in the light of differential implication of Stressful Life Events in predicting positive and negative indicators of Psychological Wellbeing.

Keywords: Stressful Life Events, Irrational Beliefs, Psychological Wellbeing, Adolescent Girls