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The Contribution of Internal and External Resources to Emotional Adjustment: A Comparison of At-Risk and Normative Adolescents

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Abstract

The article discusses the differences between normative and at-risk adolescents with regard to the contribution of background variables (gender and age), internal resources (mastery and emotional maturity), and external resources (parental support and peer support) to their emotional adjustment. The results indicate lower levels of mastery, emotional maturity, parental, and peer support among the at-risk adolescents, than the normative adolescents, and the former display more emotional symptoms. The findings also show that gender does not contribute to emotional adjustment in either research group. In the normative group, the age of the adolescent was found to have a small contribution. With regard to internal resources, while both mastery and emotional maturity were found to contribute significantly in the at-risk group, only the emotional maturity of the adolescent was found to contribute in the normative group. Of the external resources, contrary to the research hypotheses, the contribution of peer support was not found to be higher in the normative group. In both groups, and particularly the normative one, parental support contributed to emotional adjustment. The discussion suggests explanations for the research findings and their implications, as well as recommendations for further research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 52900, Israel

    Racheli Lipschitz-Elhawi & Haya Itzhaky

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  1. Racheli Lipschitz-Elhawi
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  2. Haya Itzhaky
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Correspondence to Haya Itzhaky.

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Lipschitz-Elhawi, R., Itzhaky, H. The Contribution of Internal and External Resources to Emotional Adjustment: A Comparison of At-Risk and Normative Adolescents. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 25, 385–396 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-008-0141-1

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