The most widely used measure of how unpredictable, uncontrollable and overloaded respondents find their lives.
| Construct measured | Perceived stress |
|---|---|
| Developed by | Cohen, Kamarck & Mermelstein (1983) |
| Original publication | Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4), 385–396. https://doi.org/10.2307/2136404 |
| Number of items | 10 (PSS-10; the original PSS has 14, and a 4-item PSS-4 exists) |
| Response format | 5-point frequency scale (0 = Never to 4 = Very often), referenced to the last month |
Usually scored as a single perceived-stress total. Factor analyses often find two correlated method-related factors (negatively worded 'perceived helplessness' and positively worded 'perceived self-efficacy' items), but the total score remains standard.
Alphas for the PSS-10 are commonly reported around .78–.91 across samples and languages.
Strong convergent validity with anxiety, depression and life-event measures and criterion links to health behaviors and biological stress markers. The PSS-10 (Cohen & Williamson, 1988) is psychometrically preferred over the original 14-item form.
Community, student, clinical and employee samples worldwide; a general-population instrument rather than a work-specific one.
United States. Translated into dozens of languages with published validations.