Abstract

This study examined the relationship among attributional style, health (assessed by life-satisfaction, stress), academic grade, and home environment (assessed by perceived parental control, perceived parental achievement pressure, and parents' socio-economic status) with a sample of adolescents incarcerated in detention centers (n=143) and high school students (n=189). The following pattern of results were obtained. First, when compared to the incarcerated adolescents, the high school students had higher scores on parental socio-economic status and perceived parental achievement pressure. Second, there was a significant interaction effect between parental control and academic grade. For the high school students, the perceived parental control of the high achievers was lower when compared to the low achievers, but the exact opposite was found for the incarcerated adolescents. Third, in terms of attributional style of the high school students, when compared to the low achievers, the high achievers were more likely to score higher on internal attribution and lower on fate attribution. Fourth, the incarcerated adolescents were more likely to score higher on external attribution and lower on outgroup influence when compared to the high school students. Fifth, for stress and life satisfaction, there were no significant differences between the high school students and incarcerated adolescents. Sixth, the high achievers had higher life-satisfaction and lower stress scores when compared to the low achievers in both samples.