Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2019-10
The German Version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10): Evaluation of Dimensionality,Validity,and Measurement Invariance With Exploratory and Confirmatory Bifactor Modeling
The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is a popular instrument for measuring the degree to which individuals appraise situations in their lives as excessively uncontrollable and overloaded. Despite its widespread use (e.g., for evaluating intervention effects in stress management studies), there is still no agreement on its factor structure. Hence, the aim of the present study was to examine the dimensionality, measurement invariance (i.e., across gender, samples, and time), reliability, and validity of the PSS. Data from 11,939 German adults (73% women) were used to establish an exploratory bifactor model for the PSS with one general and two specific factors and to cross-validate this model in a confirmatory bifactor model. The model displayed strong measurement invariance across gender and was replicated in Study 2 in data derived from six randomized controlled trials investigating a web-based stress management training. In Study 2 (overall N = 1,862), we found strong temporal invariance. Also, our analyses of concurrent and predictive validity showed associations with depressive symptoms, anxiety, and insomnia severity for the three latent PSS factors. These results show the implications of the bifactor structure of the PSS that might be of consequence in empirical research.
AndreouE.AlexopoulosE.LionisC.VarvogliL.GnardellisC.ChrousosG.DarviriC. (2011). Perceived Stress Scale: Reliability and validity study in Greece. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 8, 3287-3298. doi:10.3390/ijerph8083287
2.
Barbosa-LeikerC.KostickM.LeiM.McPhersonS.RoperV.HoekstraT.WrightB. (2013). Measurement invariance of the Perceived Stress Scale and latent mean differences across gender and time. Stress and Health, 29, 253-260. doi:10.1002/smi.2463
3.
BastienC. H.VallieresA.MorinC. M. (2001). Validation of the Insomnia Severity Index as an outcome measure for insomnia research. Sleep Medicine, 2, 297-307. doi:10.1016/S1389-9457(00)00065-4
4.
BauerD.HowardA.BaldasaroR.CurranP.HussongA.ChassinL.ZuckerR. (2013). A trifactor model for integrating ratings across multiple informants. Psychological Methods, 18, 475-493. doi:10.1037/a0032475
5.
BoßL.LehrD.ReisD.VisC.RiperH.BerkingM.EbertD. (2016). Reliability and validity of assessing user satisfaction with web-based health interventions. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 18, e234. doi:10.2196/jmir.5952
6.
BrunnerM.NagyG.WilhelmO. (2012). A tutorial on hierarchically structured constructs. Journal of Personality, 80, 796-846. doi:10.1111/.1467-6494.2011.00749.x
7.
ChenF. (2007). Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 14, 464-504. doi:10.1080/10705510701301834
8.
ChenF.WestS.SousaK. (2006). A comparison of bifactor and second-order models of quality of life. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 41, 189-225. doi:10.1207/s15327906mbr4102\_5
9.
CheungG. W.RensvoldR. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 9(2), 233-255. doi: 10.1207/S15328007SEM0902_5
10.
CohenS.KamarckT.MermelsteinR. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 385-396. doi:10.2307/2136404
11.
CohenS.WilliamsonG. (1988). Perceived stress in a probability sample of the United States. In SpacapanS.OskampS. (Eds.), The social psychology of health (pp. 31-67). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
12.
EbertD.HeberE.BerkingM.RiperH.CuijpersP.FunkB.LehrD. (2016). Self-guided internet-based and mobile-based stress management for employees: Results of a randomised controlled trial. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 73, 315-323. doi:10.1136/oemed-2015-103269
13.
FolkmanS. (1997). Positive psychological states and coping with severe stress. Social Science & Medicine, 45, 1207-1221. doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(97)00040-3
14.
FriedE.van BorkuloC.EpskampS.SchoeversR.TuerlinckxF.BorsboomD. (2016). Measuring depression over time . . . or not? Lack of unidimensionality and longitudinal measurement invariance in four common rating scales of depression. Psychological Assessment, 28, 1354-1367. doi:10.1037/pas0000275
15.
GitchelW. D.RoesslerR. T.TurnerR. C. (2011). Gender effect according to item directionality on the Perceived Stress Scale for adults with multiple sclerosis. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 55, 20-28. doi:10.1177/0034355211404567
16.
Golden-KreutzD.BrowneM.FriersonG.AndersenB. (2004). Assessing stress in cancer patients: A second-order factor analysis model for the Perceived Stress Scale. Assessment, 11, 216-223. doi:10.1177/1073191104267398
17.
González-RamírezM. T.Rodríguez-AyánM. N.HernándezR. L. (2013). The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS): Normative data and factor structure for a large-scale sample in Mexico. Spanish Journal of Psychology, 16, E47. doi:10.1017/sjp.2013.35
18.
HancockG.MuellerR. (2001). Rethinking construct reliability within latent variable systems. In CudeckR.du ToitS.SorbomD. (Eds.), Structural equation modeling: Present and future—A Festschrift in honor of Karl Joreskog (pp. 195-216). Lincolnwood, IL: Scientific Software International.
HeberE.LehrD.EbertD.BerkingM.RiperH. (2016). Web-based and mobile stress management intervention for employees: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 18, e21. doi:10.2196/jmir.5112
21.
Hermann-LingenC.BussU.SnaithR. (2011). Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale: Deutsche version (3rd ed.). Bern, Switzerland: Hans Huber.
22.
HewittP.FlettG.MosherS. (1992). The Perceived Stress Scale: Factor structure and relation to depression symptoms in a psychiatric sample. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 14, 247-257.
23.
HolzingerK.SwinefordF. (1937). The bi-factor method. Psychometrika, 2, 41-54.
24.
KhojastehJ.LoW.-J. (2015). Investigating the sensitivity of goodness-of-fit indices to detect measurement invariance in a bifactor model. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 22, 531-541. doi:10.1080/10705511.2014.937791
25.
KleinE.BrählerE.DreierM.ReineckeL.MüllerK.SchmutzerG.. . . BeutelM. (2016). The German version of the Perceived Stress Scale: Psychometric characteristics in a representative German community sample. BMC Psychiatry, 16, 159. doi:10.1186/s12888-016-0875-9
26.
LavoieJ. A. A.DouglasK. S. (2012). The Perceived Stress Scale: Evaluating configural, metric and scalar invariance across mental health status and gender. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 34, 48-57. doi:10.1007/s10862-011-9266-1
27.
LeeE. (2012). Review of the psychometric evidence of the Perceived Stress Scale. Asian Nursing Research, 6, 121-127. doi:10.1016/j.anr.2012.08.004
28.
LeungD.LamT.ChanS. (2010). Three versions of Perceived Stress Scale: Validation in a sample of Chinese cardiac patients who smoke. BMC Public Health, 10, 513. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-10-513
MitchellA.CraneP.KimY. (2008). Perceived stress in survivors of suicide: Psychometric properties of the Perceived Stress Scale. Research in Nursing & Health, 31, 576-485. doi:10.1002/nur.20284
31.
MorinA. J. S.ArensA. K.MarshH. W. (2015). A bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling framework for the identification of distinct sources of construct-relevant psychometric multidimensionality. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 23, 116-139. doi:10.1080/10705511.2014.961800
32.
MuellerR. O.HancockG. F. (2010). Structural equation modeling. In HancockG. F.MuellerR. O. (Eds.), The reviewer’s guide to quantitative methods in the social sciences (pp. 371-384). New York, NY: Routledge.
33.
PereraM.BrintzC.Birnbaum-WeitzmanO.PenedoF.GalloL.GonzalezP.. . . LlabreM. (2016). Factor structure of the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS) across English and Spanish language responders in the HCHS/SOL Sociocultural Ancillary Study. Psychological Assessment, 29, 320-328. doi:10.1037/pas0000336
34.
PruessnerJ.HellhammerD.KirschbaumC. (1999). Burnout, perceived stress, and cortisol responses to awakening. Psychosomatic Medicine, 61, 197-204. doi:10.1097/00006842-199903000-00012
35.
ReiseS. (2012). Invited paper: The rediscovery of bifactor measurement models. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 47, 667-696. doi:10.1080/00273171.2012.715555
36.
ReiseS.BonifayW.HavilandM. (2013). Scoring and modeling psychological measures in the presence of multidimensionality. Journal of Personality Assessment, 95, 129-140. doi:10.1080/00223891.2012.725437
37.
RaykovT. (2012). Scale construction and development using structural equation modeling. In HoyleR. H. (Ed.), Handbook of structural equation modeling (pp. 472-492). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
38.
RobertiJ.HarringtonL. (2006). Further psychometric support for the 10-item version of the Perceived Stress Scale. Journal of College Counseling, 9, 135-147. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1882.2006.tb00100.x
39.
RodriguezA.ReiseS.HavilandM. (2016). Applying bifactor statistical indices in the evaluation of psychological measures. Journal of Personality Assessment, 98, 223-237. doi:10.1080/00223891.2015.1089249
40.
RosseelY. (2012). lavaan: An R package for structural equation modeling. Journal of Statistical Software, 48(2), 1-36.
41.
TomasJ. M.OliverA. (1999). Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale: Two factors or method effects. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6, 84-98. doi:10.1080/10705519909540120
42.
van de SchootR.LugtigP.HoxJ. (2012). A checklist for testing measurement invariance. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9, 486-492. doi:10.1080/17405629.2012.686740
43.
YuanK.BentlerP. (1998). Normal theory based test statistics in structural equation modeling. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 51, 289-309. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8317.1998.tb00682.x
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
