Quality of Life Events and Their Relationship to Strain

The traditional view of life events is that the crucial factor is the number which occur within a defined time period. This was examined as part of a 2-year, prospective, longitudinal study of prospective, longitudinal study of 518 people, each of whom was interviewed every 6 months with Holmes and Rahe's Recent LIfe Change Questionnaire (RLCQ). The subject was asked if each event was anticipated or unanticipated, desirable or undesirable, and controllable or uncontrollable. Desirable, controlled, or anticipated ("positive") events did not correlate with strain, as measured by Langner's scale; whereas undesirable, uncontrolled, and unanticipated ("negative") events did. Subjects whose RLCQ scores comprised at least 75 percent positive events had significantly lower Langner scores than subjects with equivalent RLCQ totals, primarily negative ones.