Measures Description

Stressful Life Events:

The UCLA life stress interview was used to document stressful life events and was administered during each monthly session (Hammen, 1988). The UCLA life stress interview is a semi-structured interview that objectively assess for acute life events (aka. episodic stressors) such as failing a test or the break-up of a romantic relationship, as well as chronic stress such as long-term medical challenges. The interview involves a series of structured prompts that query an extensive set of domains in which an individual may experience either acute or chronic stress including peers, parents, household/extended family, neighborhood, school, academic, health, finance, and discrimination. If a participant reports a stressor, the timing, duration, severity, and coping resources available are additionally recorded. The severity of each reported acute/chronic event is objectively coded by research personal using a 9-point scale (including half points), ranging from 1 (none) to 5 (extremely severe). The UCLA interview employed was adapted for use in adolescence and has been well validated (Daley et al., 1997; Dohrenwend, 2006; Hammen, 1991). For the purposes of this work, we will focus on the acute stress (aka. episodic stressors) component of the UCLA. An overall episodic stress score was calculated by summing the severity scores of all reported events for the given month, capturing both the quantity and intensity of episodic stressors (Hammen et al., 2000). These epsodic stress scores will be referred to as stressful life events for the remainder of this work. Participants received a score of zero if no stressful life events were documented. The interview was administered at each monthly visit to assess stressful life events occurring since the previous visit.

Psychopathology Measures:

Depression Symptoms: Depression symptoms were evaluated during each study visit using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scale, which measures symptoms experienced over the preceding two weeks. The scale consists of nine items, each rated on a Likert scale from 0 to 3, with higher scores reflecting more severe symptoms. The PHQ-9 is recognized for its reliability and validity, as reported by Kroenke et al. (2001).

Anxiety Symptoms: Generalized anxiety symptoms were assessed at each study visit using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scale, which evaluates symptoms from the past two weeks. This scale comprises seven items, each rated on a Likert scale from 0 to 3, where higher scores indicate greater severity of symptoms. The GAD-7 has good reliability and validity, as reported by Spitzer et al. (2006).