Examining 96 youth diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), or sickle-cell syndromes (SCS), this study focused on attributional styles and internalizing, and externalizing psychopathology. Disease/disability parameters, including duration of disease and age of disease onset, and demographic factors were examined to determine their relation to attributional style and psychopathology. Attributional style was an efficient predictor of the youths' self-reports of depressive symptoms, when controlling for demographic and disease-related variables. Additionally, disease onset was related to children's self-reports of depressive symptoms. Teachers rated youth with SCS as exhibiting more internalizing behavior. Within the context of a risk-resistanceadaptation model, recommendations are made for future research endeavors and for the assessment of functional capacities and interventions to enhance adaptive functioning in chronically ill youth.