1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« A self-report checklist assessing the occurrence of stressful life events in children and adolescents’ lives was compared to an objectively rated interview to determine whether the checklist would introduce over-reporting of events or over-rating of event severity as a function of child/parent depressive symptoms, cognitive vulnerability, or anxiety. » (p. 251)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
« At time 1, the sample consisted of 102 parents (88 mothers and 14 fathers) who met the criteria for a current or past major depressive episode according to the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV (First, Gibbon, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001) and their 140 children (69 boys and 71 girls). At time 1, children’s ages ranged from 6 to 14 years (median = 10 years of age). […]Thirty-five (25%) children and 29 (28.4%) parents who participated at time 1 did not return for the final assessment and thus are not included in the current analyses. » (p. 253)

Instruments :
« Children then completed the following questionnaires: (1) Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI; Kovacs, 1981, 1992), (2) Children’s Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ; Seligman et al., 1984), (3) Self-Esteem Questionnaire (SEQ; Rosenberg, 1965), (4) Children’s Response Styles Questionnaire (CRSQ; Abela, Rochon, & Vanderbilt, 2000), and (5) Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS; Reynolds & Richmond, 1978). During the verbal administration of questionnaires, children’s level of fatigue and reading ability was monitored. Children wrote all answers out of sight of the research assistant. Children then completed the Children’s Life Events Scale (CLES; Coddington, 1972; Kanner, Feldman, Weinberger, & Ford, 1987) and were subsequently interviewed according to the Life Events Interview (LEI; Alloy & Abramson, 2004).
Parents completed the following questionnaires: (1) Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Steer, & Garbin, 1988; Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961), (2) Expanded Attributional Style Questionnaire (EASQ; Peterson & Villanova, 1988), (3) Self-Esteem Questionnaire (Rosenberg, 1965), (4) Response Styles Questionnaire (RSQ; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991), and (5) Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988; Beck & Steer, 1990). Parents completed the Children’s Life Events Scale (Coddington, 1972; Kanner et al., 1987) regarding their children’s life events and then participated in the Life Events Interview (Alloy & Abramson, 2004). » (p. 253)

Types de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

« Results yielded a strong association between the interview and the checklist. No relationship was found between cognitive vulnerability, depressive symptoms, or anxiety and over-reporting of events. No relationship was found between cognitive vulnerability or depressive symptoms and over-rating of event severity. For parents but not children, a significant association was found between anxiety and over-rating of event severity. Several findings warrant additional attention. First, results yielded a high degree of agreement between parents’ and children’s stress scores on the checklist and the interview in terms of both numbers of events reported, and objective and subjective severity ratings assigned. […] Second, contrary to the hypothesis that overreporting of events and over-rating of event severity would occur on the checklist as a function of depressive symptoms, neither parents nor children with higher levels of depressive symptoms over-reported events or over-rated event severity. […]Third, contrary to the hypothesis that over-reporting of events would occur as a function of symptoms of anxiety, neither parents nor children with higher levels of anxiety over-reported events. […] Finally, contrary to the hypothesis that over-reporting of events and over-rating of event severity would occur as a function of cognitive vulnerability, neither parents nor children with higher levels of cognitive vulnerability were found to over-report children’s life events or to over-rate event severity. » (pp. 258-259)