Measuring life events: The problem of variability within event categories

Dohrenwend, Bruce P.; Link, Bruce G.; Kern, Rochelle; Shrout, Patrick E.; Markowitz, Jacqueline

doi:10.1002/smi.2460060303

Cited by 69 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In other words, the stress measurement contains considerable variability because of idiosyncratic interpretations by respondents. Recent research bears out the empirical reality and high degree of distortion resulting from this fundamental measurement concern (B. P. Dohrenwend et al, 1987). This issue is analogous to problems noted previously in regard to classifying depression by self-report methods (see Depue & Monroe, 1978a).…”

Section: Perspectives On Perspectives On Stress Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 86%

Diathesis-stress theories in the context of life stress research: Implications for the depressive disorders.

Monroe

Simons²

1991

Psychological Bulletin

1,685

1,124

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Advances in the conceptualization and measurement of life stress in the past 2 decades raise several questions concerning traditional diathesis-stress theories of psychopathology. First, comprehensive measures of life stress force investigators to become more precise about the particular stressful circumstances hypothesized to interact with diatheses. Second, the influence of the diathesis on a person's life is typically ignored, which results in several types of possible bias in the assessment of life stress. Finally, information is available on diatheses and stress for specific disorders to provide a foundation for more empirically based hypotheses about diathesis-stress interactions. This possibility is outlined for depression. Such an approach provides the basis for developing broader, yet more specific, frameworks for investigating diathesis-stress theories of psychopathology in general and of depression in particular.

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Section: Perspectives On Perspectives On Stress Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 86%

Diathesis-stress theories in the context of life stress research: Implications for the depressive disorders.

Monroe

Simons²

1991

Psychological Bulletin

1,685

1,124

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The data are from Table 1 in "Measuring Life Events: The Problem of Variability Within Event Categories" by B. P. Dohrenwend, B. G. Link, R. Kern, P. E. Shrout, and J. Markowitz, 1990, Stress Medicine, 6, 182. Copyright 1990 by John Wiley & Sons, Limited.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inventorying stressful life events as risk factors for psychopathology: Toward resolution of the problem of intracategory variability.

Dohrenwend¹

2006

Psychological Bulletin

Self Cite

492

482

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An explosion of research on life events has occurred since the publication of the Holmes and Rahe checklist in 1967. Despite criticism, especially of their use in research on psychopathology, such economical inventories have remained dominant. Most of the problems of reliability and validity with traditional inventories can be traced to the intracategory variability of actual events reported in their broad checklist categories. The purposes of this review are, first, to examine how this problem has been addressed within the tradition of economical checklist approaches; second, to determine how it has been dealt with by far less widely used and far less economical labor-intensive interview and narrative-rating approaches; and, third, to assess the prospects for relatively economical, as well as reliable and valid, solutions. Keywordsstressful life events; checklist inventories; intracategory variability; narrative-rating methods; psychopathology Almost four decades ago, Holmes and Rahe (1967) published a checklist of 43 events, such as death of a spouse, divorce, fired at work, and sex difficulties, called the Schedule of Recent Experiences (SRE). Its purpose was to inventory "fundamentally important environmental incidents" (Meyer, 1951, p. 53) that were found (in analyses of patients' charts) to frequently precede illness onsets. Stressful events were defined as occurrences that were likely to bring about readjustment-requiring changes in people's usual activities. A magnitude estimation procedure was used by panels of judges to assign Life Change Unit (LCU) scores to each of the 43 events on the list (Holmes & Rahe, 1967). A summation of these scores on events occurring in a given, usually quite recent, period of time was taken as the indicator of amount of stress. The checklist can be answered in either a self-administered questionnaire or an interview.Since the publication of this economical measurement procedure, the SRE, a tremendous increase has occurred in the construction of such measures and in quantitative research on relations between inventoried life events and health. For example, a search of the terms life events, life change, stressful life events, and life stress (or a combination of these terms) using PsycINFO (http://www.apa.org/psycinfo) shows an increasing rate of publications on these topics, from 292 in the decade of 1967 to 1976, to 2,126 in 1977 to 1986, to 4,269 in 1987 to Breslau, 2002;Brown & Harris, 1989;Dohrenwend & Dohrenwend, 1974;Grant, Compas, Thurm, McMahon, & Gipson, 2004;Gunderson & Rahe, 1974;Paykel, 1974;Rahe & Arthur, 1978 Tor, 1998). The common characteristic of these traditional checklists for research, whether focusing on usual situations or extreme situations, is that they consist of rather broad categories of events (e.g., divorce) rather than detailed descriptions of individual events (e.g., a divorce after a period of marital conflict over the infidelity of one's spouse).Although the emphasis has usually been on recent events in relatively brief interva...

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“…Horowitz, Wilner, & Alvarez, 1979) as well as from daily hassles (e.g. Kanner, Coyne, Schaefer, & Lazarus, 1981), but these have not been without criticism (Cohen et al 1983;Dohrenwend, Link, Kern, Shrout, & Markowitz, 1990;Funch & Marshall, 1984). Many authors have also used instruments they have developed specifically for the particular setting of their study (e.g.…”

Section: Measures Of Perceived Stressmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Playful Advantage: How Playfulness Enhances Coping with Stress

2013

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This study investigated the interrelationship between playfulness in adults, perceived stress, and styles of coping. Research on playfulness has long centered on its connection to development in children, while the study of playfulness in adulthood has just recently commenced. Similarly, the psychology literature is rife with the study of stress and coping processes, whereas its study through the lens of playfulness is virtually nonexistent. This is unfortunate, as all three constructs are cognitive-emotional in nature, suggesting a natural relationship between them. This thesis study investigated whether playfulness serves an adaptive function in the experience of stress and corresponding coping strategies among college-aged students. Findings revealed that playful individuals reported lower levels of perceived stress than their less playful counterparts. Furthermore, playful individuals more frequently utilized adaptive, stressor-focused coping strategies and were less likely to employ negative, avoidant, and escape-oriented strategies. The findings suggested that as in childhood, playfulness serves a strong adaptive function in young adulthood, providing individuals with more cognitive resources from which they can manifest effective coping mechanisms in the face of stressful situations. Playfulness, then, should not remain on the peripheries of societal and academic thought, but rather should be developed, nurtured and subjected to further scientific inquiry.iii To the rose-smellers, the scenic-route-takers, the tree-climbers...may your courageous journey never end. To the rest, may you be inspired to reclaim your youthful spirit.iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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Measuring life events: The problem of variability within event categories

Cited by 69 publications

References 8 publications

Diathesis-stress theories in the context of life stress research: Implications for the depressive disorders.

Diathesis-stress theories in the context of life stress research: Implications for the depressive disorders.

Inventorying stressful life events as risk factors for psychopathology: Toward resolution of the problem of intracategory variability.

The Playful Advantage: How Playfulness Enhances Coping with Stress

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