Global vs. restricted negative measure of life change events: methodological inquiry

The present study replicated a previous investigation that compared a global measure of life change events (the Schedule of Recent Experience) with a restricted negative measure of such events (the Life Experience Survey) in association with self-reported anxiety and depressive symptomatology (N = 84). With appropriate sampling methods and data analysis by gender, the previous finding of the superiority of the negative events measure was not supported. The pattern of inconsistent findings for both measures suggests the need for utilizing semi-structured interviews.