To assess recent life stress we administered a modified version of the Life Events Scale for Students (LESS29). This modified version of the scale asks participants to indicate whether they experienced common stressful life events within the past 12 months; in addition, for each event that occurred participants reported on the impact it had on their lives on a 1-4 scale (with 4 being the highest). The impact scores were set to zero for events that did not occur. Based on prior research24, 29, we focused on the LESS Highest Impact metric, reflecting the highest impact associated with any event which occurred within the past year. We assessed early life trauma using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ30).
