Psychometric properties of the perceived stress scale in a community sample of Chinese

Abstract

Background: The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is a globally used and self-report scale measuring perceived stress. Three versions of PSS (PSS-14, PSS-10 and PSS-4) are available which comprise 14, 10 and 4 items respectively. However, the Chinese version of the PSS has not yet been validated in a large community-based general population. The aims of this study were to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese PSS in a large community-based general population and to compare the appropriateness of the three versions of PSS. Methods: A total of 9507 adults with at least a junior high school education and completed PSS-14 from the China Health and Nutrition Survey were involved in this study. The internal consistency reliability of PSS was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and confirmatory factor analysis was employed to test the construct validity. Modification index was used for model extension and the critical ratio was used for model restriction. Results: The internal consistency coefficients were satisfactory for PSS-14 and PSS-10, but not for PSS-4. The corresponding Cronbach's alpha were 0.830, 0.754 and 0.473 respectively. A 2-factor structure was confirmed for the PSS-14 and PSS-10, and all items' standardized factor loadings exceeded 0.4 for either negative or positive factors. Given that item 12 loaded on both negative and positive factors for PSS-14 and the goodness of fit for PSS-14 was not acceptable, PSS-13 (PSS-14 excluding item 12) was studied. The construct validities of PSS-13 and PSS-10 were satisfactory, but the goodness of fit for PSS-10 were better than that for PSS-13. Conclusions: PSS-13 (PSS-14 excluding item 12) and PSS-10 have satisfactory psychometric properties. PSS-10 are more applicable to measure the perceived stress than PSS-13 in a large community-based general population in China.

International Prevalence and Correlates of Psychological Stress during the Global COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Our overall mean score (19.08, SD = 7.17) was higher than what was preliminarily reported in Limcaoco et al, 2020 (17.40, SD = 6.40)—a global survey that ended on 1 April 2020. Reported PSS-10 norms prior to the pandemic showed an average score of 12.89 in Germany, 15.81 in Mexico, 19.25 in India, 19.2 in China, 19.79 in UK, and 15.05 in the US [ 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ]. Compared to normative PSS-10 data, our means showed an overall trend of higher averages in the country-level analyses we report (e.g., Germany and Mexico; we were unable to find pre-pandemic PSS-10 data for Pakistan) [ 12 , 47 , 52 , 53 ].…”

Public mental health under the long-term influence of COVID-19 in China: Geographical and temporal distribution

“…Psychological stress —Psychological stress was measured by the Chinese version Perceived Stress-10 Scale (PSS-10), including 6 negative and 4 positive items. Each item is rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (very often) ( Huang et al, 2020 ). Therefore, the score of PSS-10 ranges from 0 to 40.…”

Perceived stress and sleep quality among the non-diseased general public in China during the 2019 coronavirus disease: a moderated mediation model

“…18 years; education ! junior high school; [43]). PSS assesses the extent that individuals believe their lives are overloaded, unpredictable, and uncontrollable (eg, in the last month, how often have you found that you could not cope with all the things that you had to do?).…”