[Evaluation of major life events among Hungarian mothers rearing small children].

In this study we present LCU (life change unit) and quality rank orders of 92 significant life events as perceived by 184 Hungarian mothers caring for young children. For data collection, a modified Hungarian version of the Social Readjustment Rating Questionnaire (Miller and Rahe, 1997) was used. As with the American results, we could find no significant demographic effects in our sample on the LCU and quality ranking of the events. Although the Hungarian and the American LCU rank orders of 1997 showed high correlation, the LCU mean of the 63 common items was significantly lower for Hungarian mothers than for American ones. In addition, the stressfulness of some specific life events was perceived differently in the two cultures. The rank order of several life events obtained in an earlier Hungarian study (Tringer and Veér, 1977) allowed us to make a chronological comparison. The correlation of the rank orders of the 32 common items used in the two Hungarian data sets almost 30 years apart was somewhat lower than the association of the present Hungarian rank orders and American ones of 1997. In addition, some life events were ranked quite differently in the two Hungarian studies. Thus, perception of significant life events might differ by culture and by time and this observation should be taken into account in the design of research projects and mainly in their evaluation.