Questions about adverse life events were asked at ages 36 (1982), 43 (1989), 53 (1999) and 60-64 (2006-10) years. Items are not identical at all ages, but variously refer to:

• serious illness

• divorce or separation

• death or injury of a relation, friend or close contact

• problems with relations or friends

• experience of burglary or robbery

• crises or disappointments at work, and

• crises or disappointments with family or close contacts 

At ages 36 and 43 years (but not since) follow-up questions asked about reactions to the events, and whether these events had changed the lives of survey members. 

A list of the questions and variable names for the life events sections can be seen below. In 1982, the questions were mostly phrased in terms of events happening to 'friends or relatives'. This was adapted in successive years, hence why there are not many direct equivalent variables across all four collections.

Several other 1982 life events variables are present, they can be found on Skylark by searching for 'year and category' (1982 and category 'social support or life events').

A summary of these events at ages 36 and 43 years can be found in Hatch et al. (2009).  These authors categorise life events as family and economic stressors vs. interpersonal relationship stressors, with reference to total number of events (0, 1, 2, 3 or 4+), and whether there was life change (no stressors, stressors with no change, stressors with change).

• As the life events variables are largely independent of each other, it has not been possible to select a standard basket.
  
• If you are interested in an aspect of this topic, an appropriate keyword search (based on the question text) on Skylark should give the results you need.
  
• For example, search for 'robbery', 'moved house' or 'serious disagreement'.
  
• You can then email the XML of your saved basket to us in support of your application.