The
Schedule of Recent Experience
Introduction:
The Schedule of Recent Experience (SRE)
is a useful technique for understanding
the long term stress that you're experiencing.
It looks at the major life events you have
experienced during the last year, and allocates
an appropriate score to each of these. These
scores are then added together, giving a
total that shows the amount of major stress
you have experienced during the year.
This scale is useful because it helps you
understand if you've got just too much going
on in your life – if you show a very
high score on the SRE, then you should take
great care to keep your life as stable and
stress-free as possible. If you fail to
do this, then you risk stress-related illness
and burnout, as well as experiencing all
of the normal unpleasantness and loss of
performance that comes with high levels
of stress.
Theory:
The SRE was developed by Dr Thomas
Holmes and his fellow researchers
in a series of studies that compared
patients’ health outcomes with
the life events they had recently
experienced.
In Dr Holmes’ study,
people with a score of less than 150
had a low likelihood (30%) of illness
in the near future, while those with
a score of over 300 had a very high
likelihood of illness (80%).
Many subsequent studies
by other researchers have broadly
supported the approach of the SRE.
While this approach is constantly
evolving, and more specialist scales
are used in e.g. clinical settings,
the SRE is a useful tool for our purposes. |
Using the Tool:
The SRE is a table showing the 42 most important
stresses that people experience in normal
life. These are shown in the table below.
To use the tool, work through this list
of life stresses, identifying those that
you have experienced in the last 12 months.
There are two easy ways of doing this.
Either work through the
figure below on paper and calculate
values manually; or download this
Microsoft Excel template, and fill in values
appropriately – this will automatically
calculate scores for you.
As you work through, enter the number of
times that the event has occurred in the
last year in the ‘Number of Times’
column. If an event has happened more than
four times during the year, give it a score
of 4. For example, if you have been fortunate
enough to go on vacation five times during
the year, enter ‘4’ in row 37.
If you are calculating this manually, multiply
the number of times the event has happened
by the number in the ‘Mean Value’
column. This gives you your score for that
event type. Total this to give your score.
In the example above, you will suffer a
score 52 points on the SRE if you go on
holiday five times in a year.
Different people cope in different ways,
and to a different extent. However, scores
of 200 or more on this scale may show that
you are experiencing high levels of longer-term
stress. You may be in danger of burning
out, or at risk fo stress harming your health.
This is particularly the case if your work
is routinely stressful. Scores of 300 or
more mean that you should take particular
care.
And again, we stress the warning at the
foot of this page. If you have any concerns
over stress-related illness or are experiencing
persistent unhappiness, then you need to
see a health professional.
The Schedule
of Recent Experience
Reproduced with the permission of The
University of Washington Press. This scale
must not be used in any way to cause harm
to an individual’s professional career.
# |
Event |
#
Times |
Mean
Value |
Score |
1 |
A
lot more or a lot less trouble with
the boss.
|
|
x
23 = |
|
2 |
A
Major change in sleeping habits (sleeping
a lot more or a lost less or a change
in time of day when you sleep). |
|
x
16 = |
|
3 |
A major change in eating habits (eating
a lot more or a lot less or very different
meal hours or surroundings). |
|
x
15 = |
|
4 |
A revision of personal habits (dress,
manners, associations, and so on). |
|
x
24 = |
|
5 |
A major change in your usual type or
amount of recreation. |
|
x
19 = |
|
6 |
A major change in your social activities
(e.g., clubs, dancing, movies, visiting,
and so on). |
|
x
18 = |
|
7 |
A major change in church activities
(attending a lot more or less than usual). |
|
x
19 = |
|
8 |
A major change in the number of family
get-together's (a lot more or a lot
fewer than usual). |
|
x
15 = |
|
9 |
A major change in your financial state
(a lot worse off or a lot better off). |
|
x
38 = |
|
10 |
Trouble with in-laws. |
|
x
29 = |
|
11 |
A major change in the number of arguments
with spouse (a lot more or a lot fewer
than usual regarding child rearing,
personal habits, and so on). |
|
x
35 = |
|
12 |
Sexual difficulties. |
|
x
39 = |
|
13 |
Major personal injury or illness. |
|
x
53 = |
|
14 |
Death of a close family member (other
than spouse). |
|
x
63 = |
|
15 |
Death
of spouse. |
|
x
100 = |
|
16 |
Death of a close friend. |
|
x
37 = |
|
17 |
Gaining a new family member (through
birth, adoption, oldster moving in and
so on). |
|
x
39 = |
|
18 |
Major change in the health or behavior
of a family. |
|
x
44 = |
|
19 |
Change in residence. |
|
x
20 = |
|
20 |
Detention in jail or other institution. |
|
x
63 = |
|
21 |
Minor violations of the law (traffic
tickets, jaywalking, disturbing the
peace, and so on). |
|
x
11 = |
|
22 |
Major business re-adjustment (merger,
reorganization, bankruptcy and so on). |
|
x
39 = |
|
23 |
Marriage. |
|
x
50 = |
|
24 |
Divorce.
|
|
x
73 = |
|
25 |
Marital
separation from spouse. |
|
x
65 = |
|
26 |
Outstanding personal achievement. |
|
x
28 = |
|
27 |
Son or daughter leaving home (marriage,
attending college, and so on). |
|
x
29 = |
|
28 |
Retirement from work. |
|
x
45 = |
|
29 |
Major
change in working hours or conditions. |
|
x
20 = |
|
30 |
Major change in responsibilities at
work (promotion, demotion or lateral
transfer). |
|
x
29 = |
|
31 |
Being fired from work. |
|
x
47 = |
|
32 |
Major change in living conditions (building
a new home or remodeling, deterioration
of home or neighborhood). |
|
x
25 = |
|
33 |
Spouse beginning or ceasing to work
outside the home. |
|
x
26 = |
|
34 |
Taking out a mortgage or loan for a
major purchase (purchasing a home or
business, and so on). |
|
x
31 = |
|
35 |
Taking out a loan for a lesser purchase
(a car, TV, freezer, and so on). |
|
x
17 = |
|
36 |
Foreclosure on a mortgage or loan. |
|
x
30 = |
|
37 |
Vacation. |
|
x
13 = |
|
38 |
Changing to a new school. |
|
x
20 = |
|
39 |
Changing to a different line of work. |
|
x
36 = |
|
40 |
Beginning or ceasing formal schooling. |
|
x
26 = |
|
41 |
Marital reconciliation with mate. |
|
x
45 = |
|
42 |
Pregnancy. |
|
x
40 = |
|
|
Total
Score |
|
|
|
Applying this tool:
Some of these stresses can be avoided. Others
cannot.
If you have a high score on the SRE, then
do your best to avoid additional stresses.
Ensure that you make good use of the stress
management techniques explained in this
site. Take care of yourself.
Summary:
The Schedule of Recent Experience (SRE)
is a well-validated technique for looking
at the amount of longer-term stress that
people are experiencing. Although it has
been superseded in some areas, it is useful
in predicting the likelihood that people
will experience burnout or illness (including
mental illness such as depression) based
on the level of longer-term stress that
they are experiencing.
To use the SRE, work through the table
above, entering into the “Number of
Times” column how often you have experienced
particular stressors in the past year. Next,
work through each row of the table multiplying
this by the value in the “Mean Value”
column. Write the result in the “Your
Score” column. Finally, total the
“Your Score” column.
Different individuals have different abilities
to cope with stress. If, however, you score
more than 200, then you should be aware
that longer-term stress is something you
need to pay careful attention to. If you
score more than 300, then you should take
great care, and should urgently try to minimize
the amount of stress in your life. This
also includes looking at the shorter-term
stresses in your life identified with the
next tool, Stress
Diaries.
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