Stressful Life Events—Rochester Youth Development Study

Parent Items
In the past 30 days …
1. Did you get married?
2. Did you get divorced or separated?
3. Did you get back together with a spouse or partner?
4. Has anyone in your family had a serious accident or illness?
5. Has anyone in your family abused alcohol‚ including you?
6. Has anyone in your family abused other drugs‚ including you?
7. Has anyone in your family been laid off temporarily from his or her job?
8. Has anyone in your family lost their job permanently?
9. Has your child been placed in foster care or in the care of others?
10. Did anyone in your family or a close friend die?
Youth Items
In the past 30 days …
1. Did you fail a course at school?
2. Did you get suspended or expelled from school?
3. Did you break up with your boyfriend/girlfriend?
4. Did you have a big fight or problem with a friend?
5. Did anyone you were close to die in the past 30 days?
6. Have you had a major illness or were you hospitalized?
7. Did you get a new boyfriend/girlfriend?
8. Did you start hanging around with a new group of friends?
 
  • Quality of Life
This instrument can be found on pages 322-323 of Measuring Violence-Related Attitudes‚ Behaviors‚ and Influences Among Youths: A Compendium of Assessment Tools‚ available online at: http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/YV_Compendium.pdf
 
Parents and youth items should be scored separately. Point values are assigned as follows:
Yes = 2
No = 1
Point values for all responses are added. Higher scores indicate higher levels of stress in the parent or child’s life.
 

Stern SB‚ Smith CA. Family processes and delinquency in an ecological context. Social Service Review 1995;69:703-731.

Thornberry TP‚ Krohn MD‚ Lizotte AJ‚ Smith CA‚ Tobin K. Gangs and delinquency in developmental perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press‚ 2003.

 
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