Attributional style and self-esteem: The prediction of emotional distress following a midterm exam

A midterm design was used to determine whether students' attributional style for negative achievement events interacts with self-esteem and a lower-than-expected exam grade to predict changes in measures of specific and nonspecific depression and anxiety. Participants were 141 students who completed baseline measures of attributional style and self-esteem, as well as affective measures on several occasions before and after receipt of midterm grades. A pessimistic attributional style for negative events interacted with self-esteem and outcome to predict residual changes in a combined measure of nonspecific distress and anxious arousal (marginal trend) but not a combined measure of specific depressive symptoms. Unexpectedly, the greatest residual increases in distress occurred among low-self-esteem pessimists who experienced a nonfailure outcome. These effects did not appear to be mediated by changes in hopelessness.