A Shortened Stress Measure in Military Nursing Personnel

Abstract

Stress is a psychological construct with important consequences for human health. A substantial number of stress measures are available that vary in length and dimensionality. The purpose of this study was to determine whether one of these measures, the Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ), could be shortened in a psychometrically sound fashion to enhance its usability. The original PSQ has 30 items, and, more recently, a 20-itemversion was proposed. We used existing data from Air Force nursing personnel (n = 250) to shorten the PSQ through a combination of classical test theory and item response theory techniques. The resulting six-item measure, the PSQ6, had scale scores that correlated highly with PSQ30 andPSQ20 scale scores (intraclass correlation coefficient= .92), strong internal consistency (Cronbach's a= .85), and associations with stigma, perceived barriers, and resilience scale scores that were similar in strength to longer versions of the PSQ.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 17, 2017
Accession Number
AD1041640

Entities

People

  • Stephen Hernandez

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Engineered Resilient Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Air Force
  • Coefficients
  • Consistency
  • Covariance
  • Data Analysis
  • Health
  • Health Care
  • Health Services
  • Information Science
  • Mental Health
  • Military Personnel
  • Military Psychology
  • Psychology
  • Questionnaires
  • Resilience
  • Surveys

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Psychological Intervention/Treatment for Stress, Anxiety, PTSD, and Related Emotional and Cognitive Health Symptoms.
  • Psychometric Testing or Psychological Assessment.