The relationship of problem solving skill, self-appraised problem solving ability and coping style to adjustment: a longitudinal analysis

Abstract

This study utilized a longitudinal design, to assess the relationship between measures of problem solving skill, self-appraised problem solving ability, and coping style and measures of adjustment: suicidal ideation, depression, psychological symptomotology, general well-being, and the number of visits to the campus health center. Using multiple regression equations, the direct relationships of the cognitive variables to the measures of adjustment were tested. In addition, interactive effects of the cognitive variables with stress, as predicted by the diathesis-stress hypothesis, originally forwarded by Schotte & Clum (1982) were also examined.

Findings demonstrated that the cognitive variables had main effects on the measures of adjustment. Many variables also interacted with stress to account for additional variance in the measures of adjustment. It was also found that the variables accounted for independent variance in predicting adjustment. Problem solving skill, self-appraised problem solving ability, and coping style were separate and distinct predictors of the process of assimilating or accommodating to stressful events.