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Background Stress Inventory: Developing a Measure of Understudied Stress
Alexandra L Terrill1, Jill M Gjerde2, John P Garofalo3
1University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Summary
Researchers developed the Background Stress Inventory to measure chronic stress, finding it linked to psychological and physical health issues. This new tool assesses financial, occupational, environmental, health, and social stressors.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Health Psychology
- Psychometrics
Background:
- Background stress, encompassing ambient stressors and daily hassles, is understudied.
- A validated measure for background stress has been lacking.
- Understanding background stress is crucial for its impact on well-being.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate the Background Stress Inventory (BSI).
- To provide a reliable and valid measure for assessing background stress.
- To explore the relationship between background stress and psychological/physical health indicators.
Main Methods:
- Development of a 25-item self-report questionnaire (BSI).
- Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on data from 772 participants.
- Reliability (Cronbach's alpha) and construct validity analyses (correlations with perceived stress, daily hassles, depressive symptoms, and blood pressure).
Main Results:
- Factor analysis supported a five-factor structure (financial, occupation, environment, health, social).
- The BSI demonstrated acceptable global fit in confirmatory analysis.
- Good internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.89) and significant construct validity were found.
- Background stress positively correlated with perceived stressfulness, daily hassles, depressive symptoms, and basal blood pressure.
Conclusions:
- The Background Stress Inventory is a reliable and valid measure for assessing background stress.
- Background stress is associated with increased psychological distress and physiological markers.
- This measure facilitates further research into the understudied impact of background stress on health outcomes.
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