Adolescents whose parents had lower education levels had higher perceived stress compared with adolescents whose parents had higher education that prepared them for a profession. Adolescents whose parents had lower education were less optimistic than teens with more educated parents. Pessimism may be a mechanism through which lower SES increases stress in adolescence. Adolescents who had the psychological resources of higher optimism and engagement coping with problems had less stress. Higher disengagement coping with problems was associated with more stress. Adding optimism to the regression model reduced the effect of SES on stress by nearly 30 percent, which suggests that optimism partially mediated the inverse SES-stress relationship. Cross-sectional analyses were conducted in a sample of 1,167 non-Hispanic Black and White junior and senior high-school students from a midwestern public school district in 2002-2003. Hierarchical multivariable regression analyses examined relationships between PE (high school graduate or less, high school, college graduate, and professional degree), and psychological resources (optimism and coping style) on adolescents' perceived stress. Based on an evaluation of the study's use of the coping inventory, Adolescent Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences, two new subscales were developed for use in subsequent analyses. 4 tables and 40 references