The role of stressful life events in duodenal ulcer recurrence: A prospective study

This study prospectively assessed whether stressful life events (LE) were predictive of duodenal ulcer (DU) recurrence during remission of disease. We administered Paykel's Interview for Recent Life Events to 80 patients to assess events that occurred 12 months prior to the first interview and again 6 to 12 months later for LE that occurred during the interval. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy detected DU recurrence in 11 patients. Prospective data analysis showed no significant difference in LE between relapsing and relapse-free groups, whereas retrospective analysis showed significantly more LE (p > .03) among relapsing patients. LE seems to have played a marginal role in DU recurrence.     

Using cluster analysis to assess the effects of stressful life events: Probing the impact of parental alcoholism on child stress and substance use

Cluster analysis was used to categorize stressful life events into groups based on the effect (or mediational) pattern linking each event to external criteria defined within an overarching conceptual model. To illustrate the utility of “effect size clustering,” we examined the structure of stressful life events that may function to mediate, in part, the relation between parental alcoholism, parental psychopathology, and adolescent substance use. The analyses were conducted by forming clusters based on how each of 29 individual stressors related with 13 other variables considered relevant to the mediational process under investigation, rather than using the inter-item correlation matrix to determine event similarity. Using data on 326 families, four clusters were obtained that were labeled (a) family-related conflict, (b) general child relationship problems, (c) parent problems, and (d) major illness/bereavement. These exploratory analyses revealed that the family-related conflict cluster of events were of key importance in accounting for the link between paternal alcoholism and child substance use. Advantages and limitations of using effect size clustering for examining life event data, as well as data used in other community-oriented and program evaluation applications, are discussed. ©1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Young children's views of stressful life events

Fourth through 6th grade urban and suburban children first judged how upsetting they thought each of 22 stressful life events would be if the events occurred to age-mates (“cognitive” set). The children then checked events they had actually experienced and rated each in terms of how upsetting it was for them (“experiential” set). Low-level consistencies were found among judged cognitive upset ratings for the 22 items. The latter formed three factors reflecting loss events getting into trouble, and change in living situation. Although there were significant relationships between judged cognitive and experiential upset ratings for the 22 events, absolute levels of judged upset were consistently higher under the cognitive set.     

Social support and stressful life events during mid-life

Life events have been shown to produce psychological distress in women during mid-life. It has been argued that social relationships may modify the detrimental effects of life events and/or have a direct influence on psychological well-being.

This paper examined the influence of eight social relationship variables on ‘psychological’ and ‘somatic’ distress in a general population sample of women at mid-life. Several of the social relationship variables were shown to be important. The availability of individuals in whom the subject could confide was of particular importance.

It is argued that the results confirm the importance of psychosocial factors in producing psychological distress during mid-life.     

中学生的烟酒使用与压力性生活事件和感恩心态

目的:了解中学生烟酒使用的状况,考察感恩与中学生烟酒使用的关系,为中学生烟酒使用的教育与心理干预提供理论支持。方法:选取某地区四所初级中学的学生共565人,使用烟酒使用问卷、压力性生活事件量表、感恩问卷进行调查。结果:中学生在过去1个月中吸烟与饮酒的比例分别为18%和31%。压力性生活事件与烟酒使用呈正相关(r=0.12,P0.01),感恩与烟酒使用呈负相关(r=-0.32,P0.001);感恩调节压力性生活事件和烟酒使用的关系,随着压力性生活事件的增加,感恩水平高的中学生其烟酒使用变化不显著(b=0.01,P0.05),而感恩水平低的中学生的烟酒使用表现出上升趋势(b=0.13,P0.05)。结论:中学生烟酒使用较为普遍。压力性生活事件是中学生烟酒使用的风险因素;感恩是烟酒使用的保护因素,并对压力性生活事件与烟酒使用之间的关系具有调节效应。     

Resilience predicting psychiatric symptoms: a prospective study of protective factors and their role in adjustment to stressful life events

Objective. The purpose of this prospective study was to explore the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) as a predictor for developing psychiatric symptoms when exposed to stressful life events. Methods. A healthy sample (N = 159) completed the RSA, the Hopkins Symptom Checklist‐25 (HSCL‐25) and the occurrence of Stressful Life Events (SLE) twice, with a three‐month interval. Results. The results indicated that the RSA measures important protective factors that buffer the development of psychiatric symptoms when individuals encounter stressful life events. Two of the RSA factors, in particular, contributed to buffering the development of psychiatric symptoms. Conclusion. The findings suggest that the RSA is a significant predictor of mental health and a useful tool for further research examining individual differences in stress tolerance. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Deriving benefits from stressful events: the role of engagement in meaningful work and hardiness

This research explored the relationship between the meaningfulness of work, personality hardiness, and deriving long-term benefits from a stressful event. U.S. soldiers participating in a peacekeeping mission to Bosnia completed measures assessing the meaning of their work and personality hardiness midway through a 1-year deployment (mid-deployment) and completed a measure of deriving benefits from the deployment 4-5 months after it was over (postdeployment). Structural equation modeling revealed that personality hardiness was associated with being engaged in meaningful work during the deployment, which was strongly associated with deriving benefits from the deployment months after it was over. Enriching experiences were also associated with deriving benefits from the deployment. Discussion focuses on the linkages between personality processes, meaningful work, and deriving benefits from a stressful experience.     

Neighborhood disadvantage,stressful life events and adjustments in urban elementary-school children

Assessed the occurrence of three types of stressful life events among African- American and Hispanic children living in urban neighborhoods, and examined the concurrent and prospective relations between stressful life events and adjustment. Younger children and children living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods experienced more stressful life events. Stressful life events were significantly related to higher concurrent levels of aggression and predicted increases in aggression P year later. Life transitions and exposure to violence predicted concurrent aggression, but circumscribed events served as the strongest predictor of aggression 1 year later. Total number of stressful events and exposure to violence significantly interacted with neighborhood disadvantage, such that effects were only apparent under conditions of high neighborhood disadvantage.     

Social rhythm disruption and stressful life events in the onset of bipolar and unipolar episodes

BACKGROUND: An association between social rhythm disruption (SRD) and onset of manic episodes has recently been observed. Whether other types of bipolar (depressive and cycling) or unipolar depressive episodes are similarly related to SRD is unclear, as is the association between severely threatening life events and onset of bipolar manic, depressed and cycling episodes. METHODS: Bipolar patients with purely manic (N= 21), purely depressed (N = 21) and cycling (N = 24) episodes, and 44 patients with recurrent unipolar depression, were interviewed with the Bedford College Life Events and Difficulties Schedule. The presence of severe and SRD events during the year prior to index episode onset was then determined. RESULTS: More manic than cycling and unipolar subjects experienced SRD events during 8- and 20-week pre-onset periods, and severe events during 20-week pre-onset periods. Controlling for age and prior number of episodes left most findings unchanged. An earlier finding of more manic subjects with SRD events in an 8-week pre-onset versus control period was also replicated. CONCLUSIONS: It appears that manic onsets are influenced by stressful life events, especially those involving SRD, in a unique manner compared to onsets of other types of bipolar and unipolar episodes. Onset of bipolar cycling episodes, in contrast, seems to be relatively unaffected by SRD or severe life events. These findings refine the hypothesis that SRD may precipitate onset of affective episodes to be specific to manic onsets.     

农村老年人生活质量及与负性生活事件、社会支持的相关性

目的:了解农村老年人生活质量的相关因素,以及负性生活事件和社会支持对生活质量的交互作用.方法:在湖南浏阳农村社区采用多阶段抽样方法,共调查了839名≥60岁的常住居民(应答率为89.2％).用老年人生活事件量表(LESE)评估老年人的生活事件及其刺激量,用社会支持评定量表(SSRS)评估社会支持,用6条目生活质量量表(QOL)评估生活质量.结果:样本QOL得分为(20±4),SSRS得分为(40±8),负性生活事件总刺激量得分在0 ～ 240分之间,中位数M=12(P25=2,P75=32).多元线性回归分析显示,与配偶一起生活(b=-0.55)、收入较高(b=0.52)、负性生活事件刺激量较低(b=1.63)、社会支持较高(b=-0.69)的老人有较高的生活质量.交互作用分析显示负性生活事件刺激量评分与社会支持评分存在交互作用(超额相对危险度为2.72,95％CI =0.48 ～4.97;交互作用指数为2.42,95％ CI=1.25～4.62).结论:本研究提示对农村老年人,尤其是遭遇了负性生活事件的农村老年人,提供社会支持,有助于改善其生活质量.     

Influence of stressful life events on the onset of Type 1 diabetes in childhood

The study focuses on the effects of different psychosocial stress on the onset of Type 1 diabetes in Zimbabwe. Type 1 diabetic children were compared with healthy control group. A set of relevant anthropometric indices was used to asses their physical development and fitness. Diabetic children were admitted to hospital with diabetic ketoacidoses, high blood glucose levels and severe dehydration. It was difficult to achieve stable long-term metabolic control because of acute infections , diatery lapses, frequent hypoglycemic attacks due to poverty and malnutrition, lack of intensive insulin therapy and glucose monitoring. It was found that diabetic children had higher heart rates (97.7 bts/min) and showed lower results when submitted to apnoeic test (20.6 sec) and tipping test (233.2 points). Stressful events that occurred within the family during the year prior to the clinical, onset of Type 1 diabetes were recorded on an inventory consisting of 45 questions. The total frequency of stressful life events were higher for diabetic children (95.4) than in the control group.(4.2). The relative frequencies of events that included actual or threatened loss within the family were significantly higher for the diabetic children (32-53%). In conclusion, severe emotional stress induced by life events such as the birth of another sibling, the influence of a step-parent, serious illness of the mother, marital separation or divorce of parents and the change in parent's financial status are associated with the onset of childhood diabetes and may be considered as risk factors.     

Severity of stressful life events in first and subsequent episodes of depression: the relevance of depressive subtype

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have reignited debate concerning the relationship between stressful life events and depressive subtypes, particularly in relation to first versus subsequent episodes. AIMS: To investigate the relationship between stressful life events and variably defined melancholic/non-melancholic depressive subtypes, and the import of such life events to first compared with subsequent episodes across those subtypes. METHOD: Acute and chronic stressful life events were rated in 270 patients with DSM-IV Major Depressive episodes who were allocated to melancholic and non-melancholic groups separately as defined by DSM-III-R, DSM-IV, the Newcastle criteria and the CORE system. RESULTS: Severe stressful life events (both acute and chronic)-as defined by DSM-III-R axis IV-were more likely to occur prior to first rather than subsequent episodes, particularly for those with non-melancholic depression. LIMITATIONS: Dependence or independence of life events was not assessed. Genetic vulnerability to depression was not determined. Life events in first and subsequent depressive episodes were compared cross-sectionally between groups, not prospectively in the same cohort of patients. There were no differences in the number of severe life events-as defined by clinician consensus-between the first and subsequent episodes. CONCLUSIONS: These findings are consistent with other studies in suggesting an enhanced sensitisation of depressed patients to subsequent episodes of depression, but suggest that any such phenomenon is specific to non-melancholic depression, in comparison to one key previous study.     

Inter-rater reliability of the Italian version of the Paykel Scale of stressful life events

The inter-rater reliability of the Italian version of the Scale for evaluating stressful life events, developed by Paykel, was studied in 15 psychiatric patients and in 15 normal subjects. Agreement between the two raters was satisfactory for total number of events, impact and independence of event areas and categories. These preliminary findings suggest that the Scale is a reliable instrument for the assessment of life events in Italian samples.     

中学生的亚健康状况与应激性生活事件、应对方式

目的:探讨中学生亚健康状况与应激性生活事件、应对方式的关系。方法:采用方便抽样的方法抽取4480名中学生,用自编一般情况问卷、青少年亚健康多维评定问卷(MSQA)、中学生生活事件多维评定问卷(MLER)和特质应对方式问卷(TCSQ)进行测评。结果:根据MSQA的症状检出率,将样本分为健康组(n=2241)、亚健康症状组(n=1762)和亚健康状态组(n=477)。亚健康状态组学生M LER各维度评分以及TCSQ消极应对方式因子得分均高于健康组和亚健康症状组(均P0.05)。M LER各维度评分和TCSQ消极应对因子得分与MSQA阳性症状数之间呈正相关(r=0.35～0.37,均P0.01),TCSQ积极应对因子得分与M SQA阳性症状数呈负相关(r=-0.15,P0.01)。回归分析显示M LER中家庭生活、学校生活、同伴关系和健康成长4个维度以及TCSQ积极应对、消极应对2个因子与MSQA阳性症状数之间回归关系成立,存在一定关联(β=0.07～0.21,P0.01);且应对方式在应激性生活事件和亚健康状况之间存在中介作用。结论:本研究提示,中学生的生活事件应激量越大,亚健康状况可能越严重,且应对方式可能起一定的中介作用。     

The assessment of dependence in the study of stressful life events: validation using a twin design

BACKGROUND: In the assessment of stressful life events (SLEs), researchers have often tried to evaluate whether individual events are dependent or independent of the respondent's behaviour. We sought to validate this evaluation using a twin methodology. We predicted that dependent SLEs would be more heritable than independent SLEs. METHODS: We explored, by twin modelling, the resemblance in two pairs of past-year personal and network SLEs rated individually, by trained interviewers, on a four-point dependence-independence scale. We examined results from two waves of interviews with 785 female-female twin pairs ascertained from a population based registry. RESULTS: Twin model-fitting found no evidence for genetic effects on personal or network independent SLEs. However, familial-environmental factors played an important role in the aetiology of network independent SLEs. For personal and network dependent SLEs, by contrast, three of four analyses suggested a significant aetiological role for genetic factors with estimated heritabilities ranging from 19 to 51%. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support the validity of interviewer assessments of dependence versus independence of SLEs. As predicted, these assessments were relatively successful at distinguishing SLEs that were influenced by genetic factors from those that were not.     

Stressful life events and changes in substance use among a multiracial/ethnic sample of adolescent boys

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the prevalence of stressful life events and of the relationships between stressful life events and alcohol, illicit drug, and cigarette use among a multi-ethnic community sample (N = 2,446) of early adolescent boys. The data were derived from a longitudinal study of substance use behaviors and their psychosocial correlates among Hispanic, African-American, and White non-Hispanic adolescent boys residing in Dade County, Florida. Similar levels of event exposure were found among the subgroups, with one exception. African Americans were significantly more likely to experience a death-related event in the past year. Stressful life events were not significantly related with substance use among African-American students. Among Hispanics and White non-Hispanics, however, a number of significant positive relationships were found. A number of bidirectional events (i.e., those events that could be either an antecedent to and/or the result of substance use) were significantly related with stressful events, highlighting the importance of longitudinal research in delineating the temporal ordering of events and outcomes. The authors conclude that future stress research with adolescents should pay particular attention to the important moderating influences of culture and ethnicity as well as to the bidirectional nature of life events and substance use.