Major Topics of Research

Major Studies

UCLA Life Stress Interview

Chronic Stress Assessment

Episodic Stress Assessment

Use and Training

Illustrative References

UCLA Life Stress Interview

The UCLA Life Stress Interview was developed by Dr. Hammen and colleagues to assess chronic, ongoing stressful conditions in major role domains, as well as episodic stressful life events. Its development addressed three goals: a). address a gap in the field by systematic coverage of chronic stress as well as episodic stress; b). develop interview methods superior to life event checklists and provide methods of scoring of objective, stressfulness, of chronic and episodic stress independent of the respondent's subjective appraisal or emotional reactions; c). provide a relatively streamlined, accessible, user friendly method of stress assessment that can be adapted to different populations, with reasonable levels of training and time commitments. The interview, including both the chronic stress and episodic stress probes, typically takes 30-45 minutes to administer, depending on time frame covered.

The UCLA LSI has been used in a variety of community and outpatient adult and adolescent samples. Its use has extended to include people at risk for a variety of forms of psychopathology, issues of health and disease, and others. High interrater reliability on scoring of domains and types of events, and good validity have been reported. A version initially developed for mixed samples of children and adolescents (e.g., Adrian & Hammen, 1993; Rudolph & Hammen, 1999) has been adapted and modified for children and young adolescents (the Youth Life Stress Interview; contact Professor Karen Rudolph of the University of Illinois).