Recent Life Events and Stress Scores: An Examination of the Holmes and Rahe Scale

Abstract

Holmes and Rahe (1967) published a scale to measure the incidence and stressfulness of recent life events. The scale lists 43 events and assigns each event a point score ranging from 11 to 100. This scale was given to 244 employees from various organizations who attended training sessions for stress management. They were employees at all levels in public utilities, hospitals, law enforcement departments and welfare agencies. Their mean age was 38.9 yr. (SD = 11.7); there were 90 males and 154 females. Subjects were administered a battery of seven stress tests (Girdano & Everly, 1979) which assessed level of frustration, work overload, boredom/loneliness, poor nutrition, self-confidence, Type A behavior, and anxious reactivity. Point biserial correlation coefficients were calculated between the presence versus absence of each recent stressful event and each of the seven stress test scores. Ratings of 12 recent events were uncorrelated with any of the stress test scores: divorce, marital separation, personal injury or illness, fired from work, pregnancy (you or someone close to you), addition to family, son or daughter leaving home, outstanding personal achievement, starting or finishing school, change in church activities, change in sleeping habits and celebration of Christmas. In addition, ratings of death of close family member, change to a different line of work, and vacation were correlated negatively with stress SCOK~~.~ It appears that events which might be presumed stressful do not always correlate with the measures of experienced stress given these employees.