J Korean Med Assoc.  2013 Jun;56(6):485-495.

Measuring stress with questionnaires

• Shin HC

Abstract

Stress is an area of research that has grown and diversified enormously since the early work of W. E. Cannon and Hans Selye. This development has been accompanied by an accelerated and renewed interest in instruments for evaluating stress and related factors. At present, the questionnaire method is the most popular for stress measurement. However, there is no consensus on how to measure stress because of the diverse scope of stress dynamic. There are many different kinds of questionnaires for measuring stress. And these questionnaires are different according to the various aspects, such as external stressors, individual's sense of control or coping, susceptibility, personality type, and subjective symptoms. Each questionnaire has its own drawbacks as a tool for measuring stress. Therefore choosing the appropriate instruments for evaluating stress objectively is a basic and crucial step for developing effective stress reduction strategies. Another important problem is that many of the questionnaires for measuring stress currently used in the field lack an appropriate cross-cultural adaptation process for the translated version and sufficient evidence of validity and reliability.

Keyword

Psychological stress; Stress measurement; Questionnaires; Occupational stress

MeSH Terms

Consensus
Surveys and Questionnaires
Reproducibility of Results
Stress, Psychological

Figure

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  Figure 1 Stress dynamic.

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