Problem. School-age children experience common, everyday stressors and also atypical, larger-scale stressors. Lazarus defines stressors as external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person. Sources of stress may differ for children from rural and urban settings. Stress symptoms are a direct result of stressors that are either subtle or dramatic, but perceptible, cognitive, emotional, and physical responses in the body. Very few investigators have intentionally tested for specificity relations between particular stressors and particular symptoms. Such research is necessary to better understand the role of stress in the etiology of developmental psychopathology. Purpose. The purpose of this study, based on Lazarus’ stress-coping theory, is to characterize the relationships between specific stressors and the specific stress symptoms they elicit in school-age children. Method. Using a retrospective, cross-sectional design, 128 children, grades 3-6, from a rural (n=64) and urban (n=64) elementary school will complete the “Feel Bad Scale” in which they describe a recent stressor they have experienced and the “Pediatric Symptoms Checklist“ (PSC) to measure stress symptoms. The PSC is a 35-item instrument that includes emotions, behaviors, and patterns that may be a result of stress. Children score each as occurring never, sometimes, or often. Compared with the Clinicians’ Global Assessment Scale, the PSC has 79% agreement, 95% sensitivity, and 68% specificity for middle income children. Analysis. Several hypotheses of relationships among type, level of exposure, frequency, currency, severity of stressors, stress symptoms, gender and geographic area will be tested with Pearson correlations, t-tests, or one-way ANOVA. Results will be available by April, 2005. Clinical Significance. The findings will be useful to school and clinical pediatric nurses who may diagnose and manage children with stress-related problems or teach effective coping strategies to minimize symptoms in the development of psychiatric disorders and stress-related diseases.