Life Changes
Abstract
The Life Changes measure, which was originally part of a larger measure called Developmental History, consists of a 15-minute interview that is completed with the parent as part of the summer interview. The Developmental History, developed and used by Dodge and colleagues (1990), is part of a longitudinal study of family origins of children's behavior problems. The measure assesses a number of constructs: perceptions of the parent-child relationship, developmental history, life changes, child care history, discipline strategies, expected success of child in life, school, and service utilization. There are five versions of the Developmental History measure, based on the time point of administration. This measure has been modified over time but the basic items are primarily still the same.
There are four main sections to the Life Changes measure: perceptions of the parent-child relationship, life changes (only for the previous year), discipline strategies, and service utilization items. These are then broken down into eleven subscales:
- Two subscales measure the perceptions of the parent-child relationship: Quality of Parent-Child Relationship - Parent Rating and Quality of Parent-Child Relationship - Observer Rating .
- The third subscale, called the Stress Scale Sum Score is summed across the scale to represent the cumulative total of life changes experienced by the family.
- The rest of the subscales come as part of the section on discipline strategies.
Analysts should note that eight of the subscales in the normative sample were fairly normally distributed. Three subscales, however, were positively skewed. The Inappropriate Verbal Correction Mean Score and the Physical Punishment Mean Score were slightly skewed, whereas the Contingent Ignore Mean Score was highly skewed. Nine of the subscales in the control sample were fairly normally distributed and two subscales were positively skewed. The Inappropriate Verbal Correction Mean Score was moderately skewed and the Contingent Ignore Mean Score was highly skewed.
Dataset Names
Raw Dataset Name:
Scored Dataset Name:
Keywords
Migration, Divorce, Employment, Pregnancy, Demographic Characteristics, Parental Satisfaction, Parent Child Relationship, Siblings, Child Care, Discipline, Punishment, Psychological Services, Psychiatric Services, Treatment Facilities.