Measuring Student Stress. The Recovery Stress Questionnaire for Students (RESTQ-Student)

Measuring Student Stress. The Recovery Stress Questionnaire for Students (RESTQ-Student)Abstract. A new version of the Recovery Stress Questionnaire (RESTQ) for students in tertiary education fills the gap between the RESTQ for children and adolescents and the RESTQ for work. It introduces and validates new dimensions and scales for student-specific stress and recovery. Psychometric results on a pooled sample of N = 281 students confirmed the good internal consistencies of the two factors and eight dimensions. In a sample with repeated measures (N = 111), the measured values proved to be stable, especially with measurement intervals of up to 2 weeks. Construct validity confirmed the concept of the RESTQ, which claims two separate (but correlated) factors for strain and recovery. The criteria for validation covered the NEO-FFI, Coping Questionnaire SVF and a single-item assessment of perceived stress. A short version is also presented which can be used for screening purposes.