Further development of the temporal model of control

The temporal model of control (Frazier, Berman, & Steward, 2001) posits that different temporal aspects of control (i.e., past, present, and future) have markedly different relations with adjustment and need to be clearly distinguished from each other. The Perceived Control over Stressful Events Scale (PCOSES; Frazier, Keenan, et al., 2011) was recently developed to assess these different aspects of control and to advance understanding of the role of perceived control in adjustment to stressful life events. The goals of the 2 studies presented here were to expand the temporal model of control by developing a new subscale of the PCOSES and to gather additional evidence regarding the temporal model. In Study 1, we developed a new future likelihood subscale and found evidence for the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct validity of its scores in a sample of undergraduate students (N = 201). In Study 2, we confirmed the 4-factor structure of the PCOSES with the new future likelihood subscale using confirmatory factor analysis in another sample of undergraduates (N = 1,084). Study 2 also provided additional evidence, consistent with the temporal model, that the PCOSES subscales were differentially related to distress and other forms of adjustment (e.g., physical health) and that present control and future likelihood were associated with less event-related distress after controlling for 4 known correlates of distress (e.g., social support). Implications for counseling psychology research and practice are discussed.