Validity of a single-item measure of stress symptoms.

By A. Elo, A. Leppänen, A. Jahkola. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health, 2003

861 citations recorded by the source corpus.

OBJECTIVES The objective of the study was to investigate the content, criterion, and construct validity of a single-item measure of stress symptoms. Such a concise measure would be useful in monitoring stress at work. The criteria for validity were convergence with conceptionally close measures, the plausibility of associations with health and work characteristics, and the power to discriminate between groups. METHODS Four sets of independent cross-sectional data were used. The first data set, from Finland Post, comprised symptoms of ill health and mental resources (N=1014). The second, from four Nordic countries, included well-known validated scales on exhaustion, mental health, sleep, vitality, and optimism, and therefore the convergence between the measures could be studied (N=1015). The third, from a metal factory, included three indicators of health and four work characteristics (N=773). The fourth, representing the Finnish working population, described group differences in stress symptoms (N=2156) and allowed comparison with a study on emotional exhaustion in the working population. Distributions, correlations, and factor analysis were used for the study. RESULTS The stress-symptoms item converged with items on psychological symptoms and sleep disturbances and with validated measures of well-being. It had theoretically grounded associations with indicators of health and psychosocial work characteristics, and it discriminated between gender and age groups and industrial branches in accordance with the validated emotional exhaustion scale. CONCLUSIONS The stress-symptoms item showed satisfactory content, criterion, and construct validity for group-level analysis. It is suggested that the longer scales used to measure psychological stress can be replaced with it in survey research.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fe572f2cea767062e88be96a0081bbaa942db472

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Citations in the corpus

Vacation (after-) effects on employee health and well-being, and the role of vacation activities, experiences and sleep (2012, background): “First, participants generally value the directness of single-item measures and the lack of repeated comparable items (Elo et al. 2003; Van Hooff et al. 2007b).”
Does the Ethical Culture of Organisations Promote Managers’ Occupational Well-Being? Investigating Indirect Links via Ethical Strain (2011, methodology): “strain) has been proven valid in a study by Elo et al. (2003). Emotional exhaustion was assessed using the five items of emotional exhaustion (e.”
Balancing between inspiration and exhaustion: PhD students' experienced socio-psychological well-being (2011, methodology): “…an individual symptom, but instead a mismatch in the relationship between the individual and the environment, which often leads to stress and burn-out (Cole et al. 2010; Elo, Leppänen, and Jahkola 2003; Leiter and Maslach 1988; Maslach 2003; Maslach and Jackson 1981; Maslach and Goldberg 1998).”
Relations between teacher students’ approaches to learning, cognitive and attributional strategies, well-being, and study success (2012, methodology): “Stress was measured with a single-item measure of stress symptoms (Elo et al. 2003).”
The work ability index and single-item question: associations with sick leave, symptoms, and health--a prospective study of women on long-term sick leave. (2010, methodology): “Current stress was measured with a single-item question (including a description of what is meant by “stress”) taken from the Nordic Questionnaire for Psychological and Social Factors at Work (QPS Nordic), which has been validated in previous studies (28).”
Interrelations among university students’ approaches to learning, regulation of learning, and cognitive and attributional strategies: a person oriented approach (2011, methodology): “The experience of stress was measured with a single-item measure of stress symptoms (Elo et al. 2003).”
Culture Moderates the Relation Between Perceived Stress, Social Support, and Mental and Physical Health (2016, result): “We note that other researchers have successfully employed single-item stress measures (American Psychological Association, 2012; Elo et al., 2003).”
Mobile phone use and stress, sleep disturbances, and symptoms of depression among young adults - a prospective cohort study (2011, methodology): “The outcome variable Current stress was constituted by a validated single-item stress-indicator [30]: Stress means a situation when a person feels tense, restless, nervous, or anxious or is unable to sleep at night because his/her mind is troubled all the time.”