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Overview, Common Pathways Model, Administrative structureLink to PMBC Members and Contact InfoUpcoming and past Lectures, Workshops, Journal Clubs, etc.Pilot research and other PMBC research projects, PMBC publicationsReviews of assessment tools, Consultation, Equipment referralsClinical Scholars Program, Workshops, Lectures, Summer InstituteMeasurement Resources . . .Request consult on Biological, Psychosocial, Health Behavior, or Sleep research		 This project is designed to systematically assess external environmental stressors, i.e., chronic
burdens and resources, thought to result in adverse mental and physical health outcomes.  Life
stress has been posited as a key mechanism in the etiology and course of both psychological and
physical health outcomes, e.g., depression and cardiovascular disease; however, research has
been hampered by the limitations of available assessment methods.  The purpose of this project
is to test a newly developed instrument for assessing life stress, the Life Events Assessment Profile
(LEAP).

Two major types of instruments have been used for the assessment of life stressors in adults.
The first involves the use of self-report checklists.  Although checklist methods are quite
convenient, and are, thus, widely employed, they have been shown to be only modestly reliable.
The second method involves the use of investigator-based reports using well-established coding
systems with semi-structured prompts and memory aids to enhance reliability of assessment.
These investigator-based methods are reliable, but have not been widely adopted due to the costs
associated with training, administering, and scoring.  This project will attempt to examine the
validity and reliability of a new assessment instrument to be used with adults, the Life Events
Assessment Profile (LEAP).  This new assessment tool was designed to incorporate the
strengths of a comprehensive interviewer-based method without the associated costs.
Specifically, the LEAP involves a structured administration and scoring system designed to
increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the investigator-based method.  The ultimate goal
. of this project is to promote the feasibility of administering psychometrically sound measures of life
stress in the context of mind-body research.

The specific aims of the project are: 1) to demonstrate the concurrent validity of the LEAP by
comparing it with a standard checklist measure, the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research
Interview Life Events Scale (PERI) and the gold standard for investigator-based measures, the
Life Events and Difficulties Schedule (LEDS), 2) to compare the discriminant and convergent
validity of the LEAP with the checklist method and the LEDS by examining their associations
with measures of social desirability and physical and psychological symptomatology in a
community-based sample of adults; and 3) to determine the test-retest reliability of the LEAP
and to compare this with the test-retest reliability of a standard checklist measure.  In order to
accomplish these aims, research participants will be randomly assigned to one of three stress
assessment conditions after completing a battery of measures to assess demographic and health
outcomes.  Participants will return for a second administration of the stress assessment at
either one week (Group 1) or six weeks (Groups 2 and 3).  Following data collection, statistical
analyses will be performed to determine the psychometric utility of the LEAP.

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Pilot Projects Overview.Current Pilot Projects.Prior Pilot Projects
  7/12/2007  la/tc

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