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Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine pp 1Cite as

Life Events

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Synonyms

Stress; Stressful life events

Definition (and Description)

Life events are specific occurrences experienced by an individual that are perceived as stressful, e.g., bereavement, divorce, and moving house. Life events are not always negative events but can be something positive which is perceived as stressful due to the amount of change it brings into the individual’s life, e.g., getting married and changing job.

Life event measures are often used to identify relationships between stress and health within behavioral medicine research. Life events are usually assessed by standardized interview or questionnaire. Such questionnaires ask the individual to indicate which events have happened to them over a specific time period such as 1 year or 1 month. Life events are usually limited to several key domains such as health, marriage, relationships, bereavement, work, housing, and finance. Some life event measures are specific to certain populations or age groups such as the Life...

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References and Further Readings

  • Brown, G. W., & Harris, T. O. (1989). Social origins of depression: A study of psychiatric disorder in women. London: Routledge.

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  • Crandall, C. S., Preisler, J. J., & Aussprung, J. (1992). Measuring life event stress in the lives of college students: The undergraduate stress questionnaire (USQ). Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15, 627–662.

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  • Linden, W. (1984). Development and initial validation of a life event scale for students. Canadian Counsellor, 18, 106–110.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sport, Exercise & Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Anna C. Whittaker

Authors
  1. Anna C. Whittaker
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anna C. Whittaker .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, USA

    Marc Gellman

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Cite this entry

Whittaker, A.C. (2018). Life Events. In: Gellman, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_468-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_468-4

  • Received:

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6439-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6439-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference MedicineReference Module Medicine

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Life Events
    Published:
    21 June 2018

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_468-4

  2. Life Events
    Published:
    13 July 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_468-3

  3. Original

    Life Events
    Published:
    23 September 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_468-2

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