Childhood Life Events Research Articles

The accuracy of dating childhood life events on a parental questionnaire

The accuracy in dating events by parents on the Coddington childhood life-event self-report inventory was assessed, by examining the concordance between events reported on the inventory and at a subsequent life-events interview. Seventy per cent of all the events reported on the inventory were dated at interview within the stated three month period. On group comparisons of all events reported, concordance in dating was not significantly related to the nature of the events classified according to desirability, specificity or direction (exit/entrance). Nor was it related to psychological deviance in the mother or in the child. However, when statements in the questionnaire were examined individually for concordance, there was full concordance for desirable events and for hospitalizations. In contrast, there was no concordance when marital separation, remarriage and birth of a sib were reported. The reasons for this are explored.

The incidence of stressful life events of elementary school-aged children.

Certain events, commonly found in the life histories of children, have been characterized as potentially stressful (Rutter, 1981). There is some evidence to support the hypothesis that these events play a role in the etiology of various disorders, although the nature of that relationship is not clear (Dohrenwend & Dohrenwend, 1974). Yet that relationship remains the subject of considerable interest, as can be seen by the number of studies on the influence of stressful life events on children's emotional adjustment and school performance (Boike, Gesten, Cowen, Felner, & Francis, 1978; Felner, Ginter, Boike, & Cowen, 1981; Felner, Stolberg, & Cowen, 1975; Gesten, Scher, & Cowen, 1981; Felner, Stolberg, & Cowen, 1975; Gesten, Scher, & Cowen, 1978; Rolf & Garmezy, 1974; Sandler & Block, 1979; Siegel, 1981). Sandler and Ramsey (1980) have suggested that the role of life events as stressors can be understood to be a function of, among other things, the frequency of occurrence of events. For research and clinical assessment purposes, baseline data on the incidence of stressful life events of children seem to be necessary. In order to collect and organize baseline data, the relevant demographic variables must be identified. It was hypothesized that there might be two relevant demographic variables: age and socioeconomic status (SES). The purposes of this study were to (a) conduct a survey to gather baseline data on the incidence of stressful life events of children, and (b) examine the effects of age and SES on the number of events reported.

Recent undesirable life events and psychiatric disorder in childhood and adolescence.

A sample of children and adolescents (n = 157) attending a child psychiatry outpatient clinic with conduct or emotional disturbance were compared with community controls (n = 76) for the number and type of recent life events. A Life Events Schedule for children and adolescents was developed and used as a semi-structured interview. Four clinical groups were identified according to their predominant presenting symptoms (conduct, mild mood, severe mood, or somatic). An excess of events carrying a severe degree of negative impact was found for all four groups, compared with matched controls. Eleven classes of events were examined: there is a suggestion that two classes (martial/family, accident/illness) may be more important for conduct and mild mood disorders, and that a further class (permanent separations, termed exits) may be more important for somatic and severe mood disorders.

The Cumulative Effect of Stress on Preschool Children of Divorced and Intact Families

The differential response to the divorce of parents on the part of preschool children was investigated by looking at the cumulative effect of stressful life events on preschool children and on their parents. Divorced, custodial mothers and nondivorced mothers of preschool children described demographic characteristics of their families and completed a behavioral checklist of the child, a parent's life events inventory, and a child's life events inventory. Preschool teachers also described the child's behavior. Being from a divorced family predicted aggression, concentration problems, and acting toward parents. Perceived inadequacy of income, low total income, and older age of mother predicted a variety of adjustment problems independent of marital status of parents. Heightened anxiety in the child occurred as a function of having inadequate income and being from a divorced family. Stressful life events in the mother were more predictive of adjustment in the child than were stressful life events in the child. Thus, different types and sources of stress may lead to different pathways of maladjustment.

The source of stress inventory

This paper presents the Source of Stress Inventory, an adaptation of Coddington's Life Events of children, which was designed for use in schools and clinics as part of the intake/referral procedures for children with emotional adjustment problems. It provides a means of systematically examining the sources of psychological stress in the assessment process.

The children's life events inventory

The development of a children's Life Events Inventory is reported, using a similar method to Cochrane and Robertson's adult Life Events Inventory. High agreement about the values of each events was found between groups of raters (paediatricians, teachers and social workers) and individual raters. The values were compared with those obtained by Coddington with American raters and again considerable agreement was found.

Childhood Medication Poisonings and Life Events

Certified physician's assistant, Walk-In Clinic, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington Hospitals, Seattle. Address inquiries to the author at 7060 Dibble, N.W., Seattle, Wash. 98117.