Weighted versus Unweighted Life Event Scores: Is there a Difference?

Life events researchers differ in their opinions as to whether weighted life event indices are more strongly associated with measures of pathology than a simple count of the number of experienced events. In the present review, it was found that across 18 studies the average correlation between weighted and unweighted totals was .94. In 16 of 19 studies, weighted scores did not improve the stress-illness correlation.