Examining the psychometric characteristics of the stress questionnaire and its relationship with the general health questionnaire

Master's Thesis in Psychology-Assessment and Measurement

Abstract

The psychometric properties of Harry's stress questionnaire were examined after translation and validity of appearance and content with factor analysis method. A sample of 400 people from the city of Tehran were selected by simple random method and convenience sampling and completed the 66-question H.S.I questionnaire. The results of the exploratory factor analysis showed that there are 39 questions suitable for the city of Tehran, with eight factors in three sections: sources of stress, consequences of stress and stress-reducing activities under the titles of sources of stress in the family, sources of stress at work, sources of stress in the face of social power factors, psychological-behavioral consequences, emotional consequences, physiological-physical consequences, emotional consequences, interpersonal stress-reducing activities and intra-personal reducing activities, which together are approximately It explains 53.167% of the variance. The correlation coefficient between Harry's stress questionnaire and the mental health questionnaire is 0.744, and it is statistically significant with 99% confidence and 1% error, and it expresses the criterion validity of Harry's questionnaire, and the highest correlation between Harry's stress questionnaire and the mental health anxiety and insomnia subscale score is 0.657. Keywords: stress, sources of stress, consequences of stress, factor analysis Exploratory

Statement of the problem

Hans Selyeh[1], the "father of stress psychology" since 1935, considered the concept of stress or tension[2] as a syndrome or a set of indeterminate physiological reactions to harmful environmental factors of a physical or chemical nature, and thus opened the way for more than fifty years of research on an international scale in various branches of medicine and social sciences (Stora; Prosecutor, 1378) in most of the research Stress is determined based on the demands of the environment on the individual and the negative responses of the individual to the external demands. Stress is a global phenomenon and its main feature is that it involves all psychological, physical, family and social dimensions of human beings. This concept, which is placed in the four branches of human, biological and physical sciences, has been able to facilitate the convergence of these sciences during the last 90 years and lead to the fertilization of new fields such as neuro-immunology [3], which is located between immunology and neuro-psychiatry, or psychosomatics inspired by psychoanalysis. Until now, stress has been considered as a "disease" of advanced industrial societies. Societies in which, deprived of proper religious, family and social structure, man is reduced to his psychological and physical resources and can no longer deal with the daily demands of his environment and its transformations in a satisfactory way. But nowadays tension in developing countries or even less developed or undeveloped countries is emerging in various forms. The responsibility of creating the conditions of a new social and individual environment to support "life" is actually the responsibility of national and international political and economic decision-making organizations and bodies. To measure the level of stress for future planning, the need for a new tool is well felt, because experts believe that regardless of the issues related to statistical methods, the main problem, that is, the preparation of a valid questionnaire, is still unsolved. To make Harry's stress list based on related printed texts and information exchange with experts in this field, it was decided to make a list to measure stress with 5 scales. From the initial 128 years prepared, 66 questions were finally left. To prove the validity of the product torque test, the coefficient of internal consistency was calculated as 0.74 by the Spear-Man-Brown formula. The correlation coefficient of the pre-test - post-test was 0.79, and the internal consistency over time was 0.88. To prove the validity of the HSI, the internal validity of the questions was presented to 5 psychology professors who had sufficient discernment and experience in the area. They read all the questions and determined the stress level carefully.

In the upcoming research, we sought to find out:

Does the stress questionnaire have sufficient internal consistency?

What factors is Harry's stress questionnaire saturated with?

Is Harry's stress questionnaire related to the GHQ-28 questionnaire and its subscales? Is it possible?

The importance and necessity of research

Stress disrupts the activity of a person in the social, psychological, physical and family realms.Professional dissatisfaction leads to a decrease in production, an increase in errors and accidents, a decrease in the level of judgment, and a slow reaction time; Based on the creation of psychological changes such as increased irritability, anxiety, tension, nervousness and inability to control oneself, it disrupts social and family relationships; It creates weakness in playing a professional or fatherly role;  By weakening the body's immune system, it makes a person susceptible to diseases, reduces his productivity before and after the onset of the disease, and leads to an increase in the burden of those who have to compensate for these absences and deficiencies. Stress causes undesirable behavioral changes such as addiction to drugs, alcohol or drugs, increases the possibility of divorce and suicide. Long-term stress, chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, heart diseases, diabetes or shortness of breath attacks. It results in diseases that prematurely disrupt a person's health and in severe cases lead to untimely death. . The importance of the issue of stress in the mental health of the people of today's societies led us to find a suitable tool to measure the level of stress. Hari's stress questionnaire was chosen for the reason that the design and construction of the questionnaire was done in India, which has common linguistic and cultural features with Iran. The Indo-European common origin of Indian and Persian languages ??as well as the cultural commonalities derived from the historical relations of the two countries showed Harry's questionnaire to be suitable for conducting research. And the city of Tehran, as one of the most immigrant-friendly cities in the country, has a wide cultural diversity, and most of the ethnic and religious cultures are represented in this city, and this wide community also prompted us to choose Tehran as a sampling location for the present research.

Research Objectives

Investigating the psychometric properties of Harry's stress inventory in order to obtain a tool for measuring people's stress and examining its relationship with the mental health of the people of Tehran is one of the main goals of this research.

Research questions

Main questions:

Does the stress questionnaire have sufficient internal consistency?

What factors is Harry's stress questionnaire saturated with?

Is Harry's stress questionnaire related to the GHQ-28 questionnaire and its subscales?

Sub question

How are the scores of the stress questionnaire distributed in the city of Tehran?

Definitions of concepts and terms

Theoretical definitions

Stress

Stress often has a negative connotation. Deficiency and deficiency, illness and annoyances. Often considered as stress. Stress can also be a result of factors such as job promotion, relocation, first love and being in love. (Harry, 2013)

Ivanovich and Matson[4] (1980) define stress as an adaptive response due to individual characteristics or psychological process that is the result of any internal action. A condition or event that has a special place on a person's body or psyche. Hans Selye (1974) has been a pioneer in clarifying the angles of stress and introducing the concept of stress to the field of science. As seen above, different psychologists gave different definitions of stress. Burn and Ekstrand [5] (1982) define stress as "(any situation in which the body tends to mobilize its resources and during the period of time it is used, produces more energy than it should.)"

Stress can also cause physical disorders because the body's internal system changes to cope with stress. Some physical disorders have a short-term effect, such as a heart attack, while others have a longer-term effect. Long-term stress can cause serious diseases of hearing, kidneys, blood vessels, and other parts of the body. Mental health. The World Health Organization [7] defines health as "a complete physical, mental, and social state, and not just the absence of disease," which means providing, maintaining, and developing health in the individual and social dimensions. A person is mentally healthy. who can carry out his daily activities in a way that establishes a proper relationship with people, family and society and enjoys everyday life (Homaei, 2019). Mental health, social health and health-related quality of life are constructs related to mental health but distinct from it.