Life events: children's reports.

Children 7 to 12 years of age were asked to indicate events they had experienced in the previous three months in a questionnaire devised for the study. Most children were able to complete the questionnaire and reported positive and negative events, the most common themes being personal achievement, illness-related events and problems in relationships. The agreement between parents and child reporting of individual events was uneven and children reported more events than parents. Psychiatrically disturbed children noted an excess of negative and loss events and children attending paediatric clinics reported fewer events, particularly fewer positive happenings, than non-attending primary school children. A child Life Events questionnaire may be of use to explore disturbed and ill children's perception of their lives.