Four studies were conducted to develop a measure of major and daily stressful events during adolescence, the Adolescent Perceived Events Scale (APES). Study I identified an item pool of events that were drawn from the open-ended reports of adolescents. In Study 2, multidimensional scaling analysis was used to identify the salient features of stressful events that were cognitively appraised by adolescents. Study 3 examined the test-retest reliability of the APES, and Study 4 examined the concurrent validity of the measure among older adolescents. Subsequent research is summarized that has shown the APES to be significantly related to behavior problems and psychological symptomatology in a wide age range of adolescents, and directions for future research are outlined.

In this article, we review the research literature on sexual offenses committed by adolescents. Given the large number of adolescent sex offenders and the even larger number of their victims, most of whom are younger children, this is a subject matter in need of much more empirical study than it has so far received. Topics covered are incidence statistics, offense and victim characteristics, offender characteristics, and recidivism and treatment. Gaps between the clinical and research literature are highlighted, and recommendations for future research are suggested.We wish to thank Bruce Compas and Esther Rothblum for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Two studies of the characteristics of life events during adolescence are reported. In the first, open-ended reports of major life events and daily events were obtained from early, middle, and late adolescents. Analyses of the frequency of past events perceived as positive versus negative revealed effects for type of event (major vs. daily), age, and gender. In contrast, anticipated events were perceived similarly across age and gender. The second study examined judgments by older adolescents of the valence, type, and domain of life events. Consensus regarding these characteristics was achieved on only a small portion of events. The implications of these findings for the measurement of life events during adolescence are highlighted.

Multidimensional scaling analysis was used to examine adolescents' cognitive appraisals of major and daily stressful events. The desirability of events was the only salient feature for early adolescents. Middle and late adolescents also appraised events in terms of their desirability; in addition, the amount of impact that events exerted on their lives and the generality of the causes of events were salient dimensions for these age groups. These results suggest increased complexity with age in adolescents' cognitive appraisals of stressful events. Correlational analyses also indicated that perceptions of personal coping capabilities are associated with high event desirability, high frequency of occurrence, stable causes, and decreased ability of others to be of help in coping.

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