Family stress scale
Abstract
The daily activities of individuals are often filled with stressful events, from managing daily engagements to addressing survival needs. However, there is currently no established instrument that measures stress specifically within the family context, particularly considering the critical factors identified in existing literature that can trigger stress. This highlights the necessity of developing a new instrument to assess stressful events related to the family setting.
In the study, a total of 453 participants were involved, consisting of 293 females and 160 males, with ages ranging from 25 to 65 years. The mean age of the participants was 36.98 years, with a standard deviation of 10.27. The scale is a 19-item instrument that utilizes a 5-point Likert response format, where 1 represents "strongly disagree" and 5 indicates "strongly agree."The scale consists of four dimensions that assess various factors that can cause stress in individuals. In a reliability test conducted by the researchers, the Argument dimension had a Cronbach alpha of 0.915, the Family discord dimension with Cronbach alpha of 0.831, the Health problems dimension with Cronbach alpha of 0.858, the Difficulties outside the home dimension with Cronbach alpha of 0.706. Overall, the general Cronbach alpha for the scale was 0.946. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) indicates that the instrument meets the necessary cut-off criteria for validation, while the assessment of convergent validity demonstrates that the different dimensions are interrelated. In conclusion, the instrument is valid for measuring what it is intended to measure.
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Firozpur Jhirka, Haryana, India
