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Age differences in the rating of life-stress events: does contextual detail make a difference?

Twenty-four young (20 to 25 years) and 24 elderly (61 to 81 years) subjects rated the short-term (ST) and long-term (LT) threat of 36 life-events drawn from a community study of elderly people. Subjects were presented either with full contextual detail about the respondent and the event or with an edited version in which only a basic outline of the event was presented. Assignment of subjects to conditions was random. Agreement of subjects within and between groups as to what events were threatening was high and the untrained groups were also in close agreement with the consensus ratings of a trained panel. There were no significant main effects of age or contextual condition. It is concluded that the concept of the 'threat' of an event is generalizable over samples. Analysis of a significant age x context interaction showed that only young subjects rating LT threat were affected by contextual condition. Events supplied with context were rated by them as less threatening than those presented in outline. Some evidence was found to support the view that there may be age differences in the perceived impact of an event over time.