A comparison of the scaling of Afro-Americans' life-change events

Research using the Recent Life Change Questionnaire is being conducted with various ethnic, economic, and cultural groups. The findings of studies using comparable forms have indicated that economic conditions and cultural differences have a minimal effect upon the overall concordant rankings of most groups. In this paper, cultural and economic variables which influence the rankings of poverty-level Afro-Americans are compared with data from a previous study. The significant items related to employment, health, and family problems were found to influence the subject's life conditions, and those related to interpersonal relationships were found to be based on cultural values. The author discusses the importance of recognizing economic and cultural variables which are salient to the measure of life changes by selecting a scoring system which allows for the influence of these variables.