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Cross-Cultural Patterns of Children’s Phenomenology About Stressors and Supports

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International Handbook of Psychological Well-Being in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the cross-site patterns of stressors and supports reported by children and adolescents participating in the Promoting Psychological Well-Being Globally (PPWBG) project. Drawing on focus group transcripts from participating sites, data were analyzed for types of stressors and supports across site (13 sites from 12 countries, described in Chap. 2) and grade level (primary, middle, and secondary). Inductive theme analysis yielded patterns of convergence (high, moderate, low, minimal, or site specific) for a set of five stressors and three support categories. Stressor categories included those related to interpersonal interactions or relationships, self, physical context, sociocultural systems, and supernatural or coincidental occurrences. Support categories included those related to relationships, self, and activities. The majority of stressors and supports across sites and grade levels were those related to relationships, confirming the importance of interpersonal relationships to children’s and adolescents’ perceptions of well-being. Although some site-specific (cultural) differences were detected, findings suggested that differences in stressful and supportive experiences of children and adolescents were better explained by developmental levels than by cultural variations. Overall, this research represents one of the first efforts to capture children’s phenomenology about their stressors and supports and identify patterns of similarities and differences in their perspectives based on culture-specific site and developmental level.

Portions of this chapter were originally written as part of Amanda P. Borja’s Doctoral Dissertation at Tulane University

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Amanda P. Borja PhD, Bonnie K. Nastasi PhD, Emiliya Adelson MS & Zainab J. Siddiqui MSc

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  1. Amanda P. Borja PhD
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  2. Bonnie K. Nastasi PhD
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  3. Emiliya Adelson MS
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  4. Zainab J. Siddiqui MSc
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Correspondence to Amanda P. Borja PhD .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

    Bonnie Kaul Nastasi

  2. Dept. Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

    Amanda P. Borja

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Borja, A., Nastasi, B., Adelson, E., Siddiqui, Z. (2016). Cross-Cultural Patterns of Children’s Phenomenology About Stressors and Supports. In: Nastasi, B., Borja, A. (eds) International Handbook of Psychological Well-Being in Children and Adolescents. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2833-0_17

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