The Survey of Recent Life Experiences: A decontaminated hassles scale for adults

A new decontaminated hassles measure for adults, the Survey of Recent Life Experiences, was developed and validated. An initial pool of 92 items was administered to 100 subjects along with the Perceived Stress Scale. Fifty-one items were selected, based on significant correlations with the latter scale. The alpha reliability of the resultant final form of the Survey of Recent Life Experiences and its correlation with perceived stress were both high. In a separate cross-replication sample of 136 adults, the alpha reliability of the Survey and its correlation against the Perceived Stress Scale remained acceptably high. Moreover, separate-sex analyses supported the reliability and validity of the Survey of Recent Life Experiences across gender. Factor analysis of the Survey yielded six interpretable factors. Intercorrelations among subscales based on these factors were generally modest, suggesting that the scale is relatively free from contamination by psychological distress.The work reported was facilitated by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada's Small Grant Program, administered by the Office of Research Administration, York University. The authors appreciate the cooperation of staff at the Ontario Science Centre, Toronto, and the assistance of Maria Gurevich in verifying the data.