Strains at University: Reliability and Validity of a Student Irritation Scale

In two studies, the irritation scale measuring psychological strain at work was adapted to the situation of university students. The student irritation scale measures self-reported cognitive and emotional strain at university. In the first study of two surveys (N=348, N=121), two items of the original emotional irritation scale were removed and one was reformulated. In the second study (N=903), the two-factor structure of the new scale was substantiated via confirmatory factor analysis. The internal consistencies of the scales were excellent (cognitive irritation: alpha=.85, emotional irritation: alpha=.91). Relations with other constructs were mostly as expected and stressors specific for university students such as strain caused by examinations correlated significantly with at least one of the two subscales. Thus, the student irritation scale provides a valid and economic measure of stress effects in the context of university studies.