I am confused. I am hoping to undertake quantitative questionnaire based research exploring coping and stress in a Australian workplace, but I don't know which stress scale to use. My colleagues suggest using the stress scale from the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-21) because it is normed on an Australian population and that I can also measure depression and anxiety with the other scales; however, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) appears to the most commonly used measure published research. There is no reason why I can't use the depression and anxiety scales from the DASS-21 and the PSS, or just use the DASS-21. What are your thoughts?
I think you should use the two scales. This will offer you the multitrait - multimethod approach advantage of your hypotheses being testest with data collected using the two scales thus robustly confirming your findings if the two scales of stress corroborate one another. Besides, measuring anxiety and depression may also enable you to see the dimensions of of these other variables on the work behaviour of your interest.
Hello, do you know the scale PSS-14? that scale may be could help you. I used to my research the scale PSS-10 and I liked, its internal confidence was good.
Have you considered using reactive stress indicators such as blood pressure?
Please refer ro Amir Lerman and Shen-Li Tan on Endothelial Function and Mental Stress. The ground truth data is much more useful than a survey on stress. The stats are more exquisite as well. Good luck! These studies are in Cardiology and on-line in PubMed.
Hello,
It would depend how you are operationalise stress. Would you be looking to measure stressors in the workplace or perceived stress? If you are looking to measure stressors you could use the HSE Stress Management tool which is free and psycho-metrically valid (http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards/downloads.htm), which you could use along side the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). There are also some Psychological Well-Being scales that you could use instead of the anxiety and depression or along with, such as the WHO Well-Being scale (http://www.psykiatri-regionh.dk/who5/menu/) and other job specific well-being scales (http://shell.cas.usf.edu/~pspector/scales/jawspage.html). All these scales have previously been used and their are a number of validation studies providing support for their use. If you'd like any more information I'd be happy to help.
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