Cited by 601Psychological Testing and AssessmentAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesMental Health Research Topics

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

Dohrenwend, Bruce P.·2006·Psychological Bulletin

DOI 10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.477

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Abstract

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.

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Method
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Background
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Background
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Method
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Background
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Background
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Background
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Method
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Background
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Method
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“This hypothesis could be tested in further research that obtained more information about what happened in these instances(37).”
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Liu, R. T., Frazier, E. A., Cataldo, A. M., Simon, V. A., Spirito, A., & Prinstein, M. J. (2014) · Archives of Suicide Research · doi:10.1080/13811118.2013.824835 · Cited by 58
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BackgroundMethodInfluential
Resilience and Successful Aging: Aligning Complementary Constructs Using a Life Course Approach
Pruchno, R. A., Heid, A. R., & Genderson, M. W. (2015) · Psychological Inquiry · doi:10.1080/1047840x.2015.1010422 · Cited by 65
“…the substantial body of research about life events from the 1970s and 80s substantiates this point (Dohrenwend, 1973; Dohrenwend & Dohrenwend, 1974; Dohrenwend, 2006; Holmes & Rahe, 1967); a focal event in the context of one’s life’s larger circumstances can have differential impact and meaning.”
Background
Daily Emotional and Physical Reactivity to Stressors Among Widowed and Married Older Adults
Hahn, E. A., Cichy, K. E., Small, B. J., & Almeida, D. M. (2013) · The Journals of Gerontology Series B · doi:10.1093/geronb/gbt035 · Cited by 54
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Background
The Impact of Psychosocial Stress from Life Trauma and Racial Discrimination on Epigenetic Aging—A Systematic Review
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“…are a number of CDEs for life trauma assessment including the Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ) (for adults), Adverse Life Events Scale (for children), and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) (https://www.phenxtoolkit.org/) (Bernstein et al., 1997; Dohrenwend, 2006; Tiet et al., 2001).”
Background
A longitudinal perspective on childhood adversities and onset risk of various psychiatric disorders
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Background
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“However, there is evidence that interviews have greater validity than questionnaires (e.g., Dohrenwend 2006) and are less vulnerable to false negatives (e.g., Felitti et al. 1998); (4) Fourth, with some exceptions (Eames et al. 2014; Khoury et al. 2010; Norman et al. 2012; Triffleman et al. 1995),…”
Major discriminatory events and risk for psychotic experiences among Black Americans.
Oh, H. Y., Cogburn, C. D., Anglin, D. M., Lukens, E. P., & DeVylder, J. (2016) · American Journal of Orthopsychiatry · doi:10.1037/ort0000158 · Cited by 53
Dispositional Mindfulness and Its Moderating Role in the Predictive Association Between Stressors and Psychological Symptoms in Adolescents
Cortazar, N., & Calvete, E. (2019) · Mindfulness · doi:10.1007/s12671-019-01175-x · Cited by 50
Emotion regulation moderates the association between chronic stress and cardiovascular disease risk in humans: a cross-sectional study
Roy, B., Riley, C. L., & Sinha, R. (2018) · Stress · doi:10.1080/10253890.2018.1490724 · Cited by 53
“The CAI has been reported to have good reliability, validity, and internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha 0.83) (Abravanel & Sinha, 2014; Dohrenwend, 2006; Hammen, 2005).”
BackgroundInfluential
Consumo de drogas en adolescentes: El papel del estrés, la impulsividad y los esquemas relacionados con la falta de límites
Calvete, E., & Estévez, A. (2009) · Adicciones · doi:10.20882/adicciones.251 · Cited by 50
The role of life events and psychological factors in the onset of first and recurrent mood episodes in bipolar offspring: results from the Dutch Bipolar Offspring Study
Kemner, S. M., Mesman, E., Nolen, W. A., Eijckemans, M. J. C., & Hillegers, M. H. J. (2015) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291715000495 · Cited by 49
“Moreover, life events were recorded using the LEDS of Brown & Harris (1978, 1989), the suggested ‘gold standard’ in life event research (Dohrenwend, 2006).”
Method
“There goes the fear”: feelings of safety at home and in the neighborhood: The role of personal, social, and service factors
Allik, M., & Kearns, A. (2016) · Journal of Community Psychology · doi:10.1002/jcop.21875 · Cited by 49
Black-White racial health disparities in inflammation and physical health: Cumulative stress, social isolation, and health behaviors
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Genetic Moderation of Stress Effects on Corticolimbic Circuitry
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“measures, there is also some evidence that more thorough assessments may better capture stress (Bernstein et al, 2003; Dohrenwend, 2006; Monroe, 2008).”
Background
Attributional style and depressive symptoms in adolescents: An examination of the role of various indicators of cognitive vulnerability
Calvete, E., Villardón-Gallego, L., & Estévez, A. (2008) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2008.04.010 · Cited by 48
Daily emotional stress reactivity in emerging adulthood: temporal stability and its predictors
Howland, M., Armeli, S., Feinn, R., & Tennen, H. A. (2016) · Anxiety Stress & Coping · doi:10.1080/10615806.2016.1228904 · Cited by 48
“Monroe (2008) and others have documented this discrepancy across methods and several reviews of the life events literature (e.g., Dohrenwend, 2006) have concluded that interview-based measures are superior to event checklists, and that despite their rarity in the life stress literature (due to…”
Background
Elevated Appraisals of the Negative Impact of Naturally Occurring Life Events: A Risk Factor for Depressive and Anxiety Disorders
Espejo, E. P., Hammen, C. L., & Brennan, P. A. (2011) · Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology · doi:10.1007/s10802-011-9552-0 · Cited by 47
“…so that trained investigators can provide an estimate of the negative impact each event would have on a typical individual given the same specific life circumstances as the respondent while minimizing the influence of the respondent’s subjective reactions (Brown & Harris, 1978; Dohrenwend, 2006).”
Interaction of 5-HTTLPR and Idiographic Stressors Predicts Prospective Depressive Symptoms Specifically Among Youth in a Multiwave Design
Hankin, B. L., Jenness, J. L., Abela, J. R. Z., & Smolen, A. (2011) · Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology · doi:10.1080/15374416.2011.581613 · Cited by 49
“Also, the stress measure uses very specific language with precise anchors and examples to define stressors as recommended to more accurately assess negative events (Brewin et al., 1993; Dohrenwend, 2006).”
Background
The Role of Stress in Breast Cancer Incidence: Risk Factors, Interventions, and Directions for the Future
Bowen, D., Poole, S. F., White, M., Lyn, R., Flores, D., Haile, H. G., & Williams, D. R. (2021) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph18041871 · Cited by 33
“This work highlights the larger issue of what Bruce Dohrenwend calls “intracategory variability” in the measures of stress [33].”
Background
BEHAVIORAL INTENTION OF TEACHERS, SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS, AND COUNSELORS TO INTERVENE AND PREVENT HARASSMENT OF LGBTQ YOUTH
McCabe, P. C., Rubinson, F., Dragowski, E. A., & Elizalde-Utnick, G. (2013) · Psychology in the Schools · doi:10.1002/pits.21702 · Cited by 55
Prevalence of and risk factors for prostatitis in African American men: The Flint Men's Health Study
Wallner, L. P., Clemens, J. Q., & Sarma, A. V. (2008) · The Prostate · doi:10.1002/pros.20846 · Cited by 44
“Stressful life events were assessed by querying participants about the occurrence of seven of the most stressful life events identified in the literature [16,17].”
Introducing two types of psychological resilience with partly unique genetic and environmental sources
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Stress and opioid use disorder: A systematic review
MacLean, R. R., Armstrong, J. L., & Sofuoglu, M. (2019) · Addictive Behaviors · doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2019.05.034 · Cited by 43
Stressful Life Events, Differential Vulnerability, and Depressive Symptoms: Critique and New Evidence
Anderson, L., Monden, C., & Bukodi, E. (2021) · Journal of Health and Social Behavior · doi:10.1177/00221465211055993 · Cited by 44
“In small-scale psychiatric epidemiology studies, a credible solution emerged in the form of intensive structured interviewing with independent postinterview transcript coding (Dohrenwend 2006).”
BackgroundMethodInfluential
Personality Predicts Health Declines Through Stressful Life Events During Late Mid‐Life
McClendon, J., Bogdan, R., & Oltmanns, T. F. (2015) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/jopy.12179 · Cited by 43
“…retrospective recall and self-report (e.g., recall bias, intracategory variability) that typically diminish the accuracy of life-event checklists (Dohrenwend, 2006; Lewinsohn, Rohde, & Gau, 2003; Monroe, 2008; Paykel, 1987), anyone reporting at least one SLE was called as soon as possible for a…”
BackgroundMethod
Mediating effects of emotion regulation strategies in the relations between stressful life events and life satisfaction in a longitudinal sample of early adolescents
Ng, Z. J., Huebner, E. S., Hills, K. J., & Valois, R. F. (2018) · Journal of School Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2018.06.001 · Cited by 42
Criterion validation of a stress measure: The Stress Overload Scale.
Amirkhan, J. H., Urizar, G. G., & Clark, S. (2015) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037/pas0000081 · Cited by 43
Les risques psychosociaux du dirigeant de PME : typologie et échelle de mesure des stresseurs professionnels1
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“Cette démarche a permis de circonscrire un biais propre aux inventaires d’événement : la variabilité intracatégories (Dohrenwend, 2006).”
Timing of prenatal exposure to trauma and altered placental expressions of hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal axis genes and genes driving neurodevelopment
Zhang, W., Li, Q., Deyssenroth, M. A., Lambertini, L., Finik, J. M., Ham, J.-H., Huang, Y., Tsuchiya, K. J., Pehme, P. M., Buthmann, J. L., et al. (2018) · Journal of Neuroendocrinology · doi:10.1111/jne.12581 · Cited by 43
Prevalence of Current PTSD Symptoms Among a Sample of Black Individuals Aged 15 to 40 in Canada: The Major Role of Everyday Racial Discrimination, Racial Microaggresions, and Internalized Racism
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“This questionnaire is widely used and demonstrates robust psychometric properties, such as reliability and validity.(20,21) Cronbach alpha in our sample was 0.”
Method
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Exhaustion measured by the SF-36 vitality scale is associated with a flattened diurnal cortisol profile
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“…unemployment, economic hardship, divorce, social isolation, etc., are widely considered to cause or contribute to chronic stress (Rahe, 1990; Lepore, 1995; Dohrenwend, 2006), and the impact on exhaustion of such factors, as well as of work-related factors, should be investigated in further studies.”
Conscientiousness and stress exposure and reactivity: a prospective study of adolescent females
Murphy, M. L. M., Miller, G. E., & Wrosch, C. (2012) · Journal of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1007/s10865-012-9408-2 · Cited by 41
“In addition, it addresses methodological problems of measuring stress using self-report checklists (Dohrenwend, 2006) by utilizing a semistructured interview to assess stress exposure, which is heralded as a “gold standard” for stress assessment (Monroe, 2008).”
Background
Gender Differences in Adolescents’ Exposure to Stressful Life Events and Differential Links to Impaired School Functioning
Lavoie, L., Dupéré, V., Dion, É., Crosnoe, R. L., Lacourse, É., & Archambault, I. (2019) · Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology · doi:10.1007/s10802-018-00511-4 · Cited by 49
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Post-traumatic growth, stressful life events, and relationships with substance use behaviors among alternative high school students: A prospective study
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“Self-reports of the number and types of SLEs one has experienced are subject to memory lapses or selective disclosure (Dohrenwend, 2006).”
Prenatal Stress, Poverty, and Child Outcomes
Lefmann, T., & Combs-Orme, T. D. (2014) · Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal · doi:10.1007/s10560-014-0340-x · Cited by 41
“This debate continues, and no universally accepted characterization of the term exists (Dohrenwend 2006).”
BackgroundMethod
Moderators of the link between marital hostility and change in spouses’ depressive symptoms.
Proulx, C. M., Buehler, C. A., & Helms, H. M. (2009) · Journal of Family Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0015448 · Cited by 38
“Lastly, our use of a checklist measure of recent life events is limited in that such measures do not assess the extent of severity of the events or the level of stress they may produce (Dohrenwend, 2006; Wethington, Brown, & Kesler, 1995).”
Method
Seasonal sensitivity and psychiatric morbidity: study about seasonal affective disorder
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Mismatch or Cumulative Stress
Nederhof, E., Ormel, J., & Oldehinkel, A. J. (2014) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797613513473 · Cited by 38
“Interviewer-based contextual ratings are essential to prevent intracategory variability and to disentangle objective event characteristics from the emotions and behaviors that may have been evoked by the event (Brown & Harris, 1978; Dohrenwend, 2006).”
Background
Impact of recent life events on the health related quality of life of adolescents and youths: the role of gender and life events typologies in a follow-up study
Villalonga-Olives, E., Rojas‐Farreras, S., Vilagut, G., Vieira, J. A. P., Valderas, J. M., Herdman, M., Ferrer, M., Rajmil, L., & Alonso, J. (2010) · Health and Quality of Life Outcomes · doi:10.1186/1477-7525-8-71 · Cited by 38
““Loss of a job of your father or mother”) vs. extra-family events (e.g. “Going on the first date”) [3-5,27, 31 ].”
Background
Toward a Typology of High-Risk Major Stressful Events and Situations in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Related Psychopathology
Dohrenwend, B. P. (2010) · Psychological Injury and Law · doi:10.1007/s12207-010-9072-1 · Cited by 42
“about the events and situations than traditional checklist approaches provide ( Dohrenwend 2006 ).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citation
Lower cumulative stress is associated with better health for physically active adults in the community
Stults-Kolehmainen, M. A., Tuit, K., & Sinha, R. (2014) · Stress · doi:10.3109/10253890.2013.878329 · Cited by 34
“Prior research supports the use of interviewers to efficiently improve reliability and validity of retrospective reports of stressful life events (Dohrenwend, 2006).”
Influential
Subjective experiences of life events match individual differences in personality development.
Schwaba, T., Denissen, J. J. A., Luhmann, M., Hopwood, C. J., & Bleidorn, W. (2023) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/pspp0000483 · Cited by 36
Examining the mediating roles of binge eating and emotional eating in the relationships between stress and metabolic abnormalities
Chao, A. M., Grey, M. J., Whittemore, R., Reuning-Scherer, J. D., Grilo, C. M., & Sinha, R. (2015) · Journal of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1007/s10865-015-9699-1 · Cited by 41
“Use of interview techniques is recommended to decrease participant recall bias (Dohrenwend, 2006).”
Negative affectivity moderated by BDNF and stress response
Perea, C. S., Paternina, A. C., Gómez, Y., & Lattig, M. C. (2011) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2011.09.043 · Cited by 37
“given that an individual's perception of stress can be influenced by themood the individual presents at themoment of answering the questionnaires (Dohrenwend, 2006).”
Background
Utilizing Principles of Life-Span Developmental Psychology to Study the Complexities of Resilience Across the Adult Life Span
Infurna, F. J. (2021) · The Gerontologist · doi:10.1093/geront/gnab086 · Cited by 48
“These life challenges are uniquely characterized by discrete and, in principle, observable environmental and social changes that precipitate the need for adjustment in identity or life routines (Dohrenwend, 2006; Gray et al., 2004).”
Background
Psychological Distress in Young Adults Exposed to War-Related Trauma in Childhood
Llabre, M. M., Hadi, F., Greca, A. M. L., & Lai, B. S. (2013) · Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology · doi:10.1080/15374416.2013.828295 · Cited by 36
Race/Ethnicity and Self-Reported Levels of Discrimination and Psychological Distress, California, 2005
Byrd, D. R. (2012) · Preventing Chronic Disease · doi:10.5888/pcd9.120042 · Cited by 35
Validating new summary indices for the Childhood Trauma Interview: Associations with first onsets of major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders.
Vrshek-Schallhorn, S., Wolitzky-Taylor, K., Doane, L. D., Epstein, A., Sumner, J. A., Mineka, S., Zinbarg, R. E., Craske, M. G., Isaia, A., Hammen, C., et al. (2014) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037/a0036842 · Cited by 34
“Among self-report measures, interviews are thought to have higher validity than questionnaires (e.g, Dohrenwend, 2006; McQuaid et al., 1992).”
The influence of stress and early life adversity on addiction: Psychobiological mechanisms of risk and resilience
(2020) · International review of neurobiology · doi:10.1016/bs.irn.2020.03.012 · Cited by 34
Negative Affect Mediates Effects of Psychological Stress on Disordered Eating in Young Chinese Women
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Authors: Dohrenwend, B. P.
Affiliations: Columbia University Irving Medical Center (US)
Corresponding author: Dohrenwend, Bruce P.
ORCID: Dohrenwend, Bruce P.
Venue: Psychological Bulletin
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Published: 2006
Volume: 132
Issue: 3
Pages: 477-495
ISSN: 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
1939-1455
DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.477
OpenAlex: W2043830713
Cited by: 601
References: 160
Citations by year: 2026: 19 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 45 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 34 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 32 · 2015: 39 · 2014: 45 · 2013: 39 · 2012: 29
FWCI: 3.15
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders: National Institute of Mental Health (K05MH14663; MH26208; MH59627)
Topics: Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Psychological Testing and Assessment
Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
Keywords: life events, psychopathology, reliability and validity, risk factors
MeSH terms: Mental Disorders, Conflict, Psychological, Humans, Life Change Events, Risk Factors, Narration

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

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