Children's appraisal of Major Life Events.

Two hundred nine 9-12-year-olds completed items assessing their appraisal of the most stressful event in the past 5 months. Exploratory factor analyses revealed 6 appraisal dimensions (Self- Blame, External Blame, Degree of Threat, Significance, Gain, and Predictability) and 2 expectancy dimensions (Positive Outcome and Duration Expectancies). Situational variations were found for the appraisal dimensions, with the exception of Gain, Outcome, and Duration Expectancies. Implications for models of developmental psychopathology are considered.