Adjustment, Stress and Family Life in Adolescents in Canada, Britain, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan and The Philippines

ABSTRACT

Using a normative Canadian study as the baseline for comparison of measures of stress and adjustment, and as the basis for a model predicting poor adjustment following stress in family, school and community, a comparison was made of 2,524 15 and 16-year-olds self-competing questionnaires in school settings in Canada, Britain, Pakistan, India, Hong Kong and The Philippines. Results indicate some cross-cultural validity for the instruments used, implying that there are culturally universal aspects of reaction to stress, in terms of emotional and psychosomatic disorder, conduct disorder and hyperactivity, and impaired self-esteem. Students in Canada, Britain, Hong Kong and The Philippines were the most similar in terms of mean levels of stress and of reactions to stress, whilst students in Pakistan and India were the most dissimilar but in opposite directions, the Indian students having particularly good levels of adjustment. A notable finding was that the McMaster Family Adjustment Device was more successful in predicting problems of emotion and behaviour than were more specific measures of physical and sexual maltreatment.