Adolescent appraisals of life events: Emotions embedded with meaning

The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions that resilient urban adolescents had about stressful life events within the overlapping contexts of family, school and environment and to ascertain adolescent perceived emotions embedded in their appraisals of the events. Adolescent emotions were synthesized using the cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotion (Lazarus, 1991a) and categorized using the theory of emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1995; Salovey & Sluyter, 1997). This research was an attempt to establish a preliminary link between the two theories.; Forty urban ninth graders who attended high school in a northeastern city described their perceptions of stress in their family, school, and home environment. Teachers from the same high school nominated a sample of ninth graders who exhibited the characteristics of resilience as described in the literature. The data was collected and triangulated through semi-structured interviews, weeklong journal entries, and focus group interviews.; The data indicated that resilient urban ninth graders: (1) Perceived that their emotional state was tied to a limited generic emotional vocabulary, however they were able to illustrate their emotions in more depth using songs, poems, metaphors and imagery; (2) Appraised their lives, in the midst of violence, as vulnerable and demanding but not isolated; (3) Perceived life events and their subsequent coping behaviors in relationship to their perceptions of control and the context of the event; (4) Appraised their lives within the school environment as stressful and their related emotional state to interpersonal relationships.; Recommendations for practice include developing emotional literacy programs that are comprehensive in nature, spiraled throughout each discipline and vertically driven from pre-school and kindergarten through high school. A program such as this would help impoverished urban children develop social networks and peer relationships, while practicing positive interpersonal skills and safely express their feelings in a supportive manner.