Measuring Life Events in a Sample of South African Students: Comparison of the Life Experiences Survey and the Schedule of Recent Experiences
This study compared the Life Experiences Survey and the Schedule of Recent Experiences for a sample of 213 students. Scores on the Life Experiences Survey–Negative discriminated between rural and urban students and between African language speakers and Afrikaans/English speakers. A small but significant correlation between Life Experiences Survey–Negative and scores on the Center for Epidemiological Studies–Depression scale was found, while there was no correlation between scores on the Schedule of Recent Experiences with depression. The Life Experiences Survey–Negative was the only significant predictor of Depression scores. The Life Experiences Survey–Negative interacted significantly with all the measures of social support (Friends, Family, Satisfaction, and Number of Supports) in predicting depression, while the Schedule of Recent Experiences only interacted significantly with support from Family and Number of Supports. The study also provides support for clearly distinguishing between desirable and undesirable events, since positive events moderated the correlation of negative events with depression. The Life Experiences Survey is a more promising measure of life events than the Schedule of Recent Experiences in the South African context.