Preliminary Validation of a Short Form of the Perceived Stress Questionnaire for Use in Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling Research and Practice

Background: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a short form of the Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ) in people with spinal cord injury (SCI). Methods: The sample consisted of 274 individuals with SCI. Measures administered were the PSQ-20, Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale, and Rand Short-Form 36 General Health Scale. Results: Results showed that after selecting two items from each subscale of the PSQ-20, factor analysis results supported a unidimensional measure for the PSQ-8. The PSQ-8 total score demonstrated a high correlation with the PSQ-20 total score. The reliability of the PSQ-8 was adequate and similar to the PSQ-20. The PSQ-8 measurement correlated well with the external correlates of depression and health status. The mediation analysis indicated depression as a partial mediator for the relationship between perceived stress and health status, indicating people with higher levels of perceived stress had poorer health outcome in this study. Conclusions: This study provides evidence to support the psychometric properties of PSQ-8 in people with SCI. The PSQ-8 is a brief, reliable, unidimensional, and psychometrically sound measure of perceived stress that can be used in clinical rehabilitation and mental health counseling research and practice.