Construction, validity and reliability of a global scale of perceived stressful events for adolescents

Abstract

Adolescence is a vulnerable developmental stage, in which the adolescents’ life experiences can be an important source of stress influencing their well-being and mental health, however, it depends on their subjective appraisal. The Perceived Stressors Global Scale for Adolescents was developed a valid and reliable measure to identify major and minor potentially stressful events, in multiple domains, as well as, the level of stress perceived, in adolescents. An instrumental study was conducted participating 991 adolescents aged 13 to 18 years old, attending public schools from five states of Mexico. A factor analysis by principal component (PC) with promax rotation method was performed, which revealed 53 Likert items distributed in six factors: Critical events; Daily hassles; Social exhibition; Family concerns; Academic stressors; and Social pressure. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted using maximum likelihood (ML) method corroborating the initial solution of six factors. The model's goodness-of-fit measures are acceptable, as well as, the internal consistency coefficients. Although data indicate that the scale could be useful for identifying domains and types of stressors, as well as, the intensity of adolescent's perceived stress, it is recommended to test this factorial model in other samples.

Keywords: Adolescents; perceived stress; validity; reliability; confirmatory

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