2.5. Life Events Checklist

Mothers completed the Life Events Checklist (Johnson and McCutcheon, 1980), a well-validated measure that asks parents about the occurrence and impact of stressful events in their child's life. For example, items include— “parents divorced”; “new brother or sister”—events that are directly relevant to young children. Parents indicate with a 0 or 1 if the event has ever occurred in the child's lifetime or in the last 6 months. For events that have happened, parents indicate if they believe the impact of the event on the child was positive or negative, and they rate the impact of the event on the child using a 1–4 scale (1 = No effect, 2 = Some effect, 3 = Moderate effect, 4 = Great effect). While events are rated on a 1–4 scale, it is possible to obtain a score of 0, if no negative events ever occurred. Impact scores are summed, producing four scores: a positive 6-month impact score, a negative 6-month impact score, a positive lifetime impact score, and a negative lifetime impact score. These reflect, respectively, the impact of positive and negative stressful life events that have occurred within the past 6 months and over the course of the child's lifetime. In our analyses, we employed the negative lifetime impact score because, while negative life events are linked to increased stress, positive life events are generally considered to buffer against stress (Blonski et al., 2016). This measure was intended as a covariate in analyses.