Independent/interdependent self-construal and psychological stress junior high school students

The present study reports construction of scales for assessing psychological stress responses in junior high school students. The relation between stress responses and independent/interdependent self-construal was examined. Junior high school students (N=1,112) answered 2 questionnaires : a Psychological Stress Responses Scale, and an Independent and Interdependent Self-Construal Scale. The results were as follows : (1) a high score on assertiveness was related to a low score on almost all stress measures; (2) a high score on fear of negative evaluation was related to a high score on stress responses, (3) based on a cluster analysis, students could be categorized into 4 groups, and (4) the interdependence-predominant group had higher stress response scores than the other groups.