Top

Published in:

Open Access 01-12-2020 | Research article

Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) psychometric properties in migrants and native Germans

Authors: Christina Diane Bastianon, Eva M. Klein, Ana Nanette Tibubos, Elmar Brähler, Manfred E. Beutel, Katja Petrowski

Published in: BMC Psychiatry | Issue 1/2020

Abstract

Background

With the increasing diversity of the German population, it is important to test the psychometric validity and reliability of the German version Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) specifically between German natives and residents with a migration background.

Methods

Using nationally representative data (N = 2527), this study conducted an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to determine the most appropriate factor structure, a Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MGCFA) to compare the validity of the two-factor structure and tested the PSS-10 measurement invariance between the German native and migrant sub-samples. Lastly, reliability of the PSS-10 was examined via Cronbach’s alpha, omega and individual item analyses across the two sub-samples.

Results

The EFA results support a two-factor structure in the migrant sample. The MGCFA showed adequate model fit for both sub-samples and the PSS-10 is strict invariant between German natives and migrants. Cronbach’s alpha and omega for Perceived Helplessness (PHS: factor 1) and Perceived Self-Efficacy (PSES: factor 2) demonstrate good internal consistency in both German and migrant sub-samples.

Conclusions

The key conclusions are: (1) the German version PSS-10 is suitable for German residents with a migration background. (2) Despite good internal consistency for the total scale, the PSS-10 measures two aspects: (a) perceived helplessness and (b) perceived self-efficacy. Future research would profit from analyzing the two subscales separately, not only using the total score.

WHO. The European Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020. Copenhagen; 2015. http://www.euro.who.int/pubrequest. Accessed 5 Sep 2019.

Lohmann-Haislah A. Stressreport Deutschland 2012 - Psychische Anforderungen, Ressourcen und Befinden. Berlin; 2012. www.baua.de. Accessed 11 Sep 2019.

Castles S, De Haas H, Miller MJ. The age of migration: international population movements in the modern world. 5th ed. Houndmills, New York: Palgrave Macmillan; 2014.

Massey DS, Arango J, Hugo G, Kouaouci A, Pellegrino A, Taylor JE. Worlds in motion: understanding international migration at the end of the millennium. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 2009.

Statistisches Bundesamt. Foreign population by selected citizenships and years. 2019. https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Society-Environment/Population/Migration-Integration/Tables/foreigner-citizenship-time-serie.html. Accessed 3 Apr 2020.

Statistisches Bundesamt. Foreign population by place of birth and selected citizenships. 2019. https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Society-Environment/Population/Migration-Integration/Tables/foreigner-place-of-birth.html. Accessed 3 Apr 2020.

IOM. Manual on Community-based mental health and psychological support in emergencies and displacement. Geneva: IOM; 2019.

Berry JW. Acculturation: living successfully in two cultures. Int J Intercult Relations. 2005;29:697–712. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.IJINTREL.2005.07.013.CrossRef

Haasen C, Demiralay C, Reimer J. Acculturation and mental distress among Russian and Iranian migrants in Germany. Eur Psychiatry. 2008;23:10–3. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0924-9338(08)70056-7.CrossRefPubMed

10.

Beutel ME, Jünger C, Klein EM, Wild P, Lackner KJ, Blettner M, et al. Depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation among 1st and 2nd generation migrants - results from the Gutenberg health study. BMC Psychiatry. 2016;16:1–10.CrossRef

11.

Tibubos AN, Beutel ME, Schulz A, Klein EM, Brähler E, Michal M, et al. Is assessment of depression equivalent for migrants of different cultural backgrounds? Results from the German population-based Gutenberg health study (GHS). Depress Anxiety. 2018;35:1178–89. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22831.CrossRefPubMed

12.

Tibubos AN, Kröger H. A cross-cultural comparison of the ultrabrief mental health screeners PHQ-4 and SF-12 in Germany. Psychol Assess. 2020;32(7):690–7. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000814.

13.

Cohen S, Kamarck T, Mermelstein R. A global measure of perceived stress. J Health Soc Behav. 1983;24:385–96. https://doi.org/10.2307/2136404.CrossRefPubMed

14.

Cohen S, Williamson G. Perceived stress in a probability sample of the United States. In: Spacapan S, Oskamp S, editors. The social psychology of health: Claremont symposium on applied social psychology. Newbury Park, CA: Sage; 1988. p. 31–67.

15.

Lee E-H. Review of the Psychometric Evidence of the Perceived Stress Scale. Asian Nurs Res (Korean Soc Nurs Sci). 2012;6:121–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anr.2012.08.004.CrossRef

16.

Hewitt PL, Flett GL, Mosher SW. The perceived stress scale: factor structure and relation to depression symptoms in a psychiatric sample. J Psychopathol Behav Assess. 1992;14:247–57. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00962631.CrossRef

17.

Roberti JW, Harrington LN, Storch EA. Further psychometric support for the 10-item version of the perceived stress scale. 2006. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1882.2006.tb00100.x.

18.

Taylor JM. Psychometric Analysis of the Ten-Item Perceived Stress Scale 2014. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038100.

19.

Lesage F-X, Berjot S, Deschamps F. Psychometric properties of the French versions of the perceived stress scale. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2012;25:178–84. https://doi.org/10.2478/s13382-012-0024-8.CrossRefPubMed

20.

Khalili R, Sirati Nir M, Ebadi A, Tavallai A, Habibi M. Validity and reliability of the Cohen 10-item Perceived Stress Scale in patients with chronic headache: Persian version. Asian J Psychiatr. 2017;26:136–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.AJP.2017.01.010.CrossRefPubMed

21.

Remor E. Psychometric properties of a European Spanish version of the perceived stress scale (PSS). J Psychol. 2006;9:86–93.

22.

Chaaya M, Osman H, Naassan G, Mahfoud Z. Validation of the Arabic version of the Cohen perceived stress scale (PSS-10) among pregnant and postpartum women. BMC Psychiatry. 2010;10:111. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-10-111.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

23.

Klein EM, Brähler E, Dreier M, Reinecke L, Müller KW, Schmutzer G, et al. The German version of the perceived stress scale-psychometric characteristics in a representative German community sample. BMC Psychiatry. 2016;16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-016-0875-9.

24.

Reis D, Lehr D, Heber E, Erbert DD. The German version of the perceived stress scale (PSS-10): evaluation of dimensionality, validity, and measurement invariance with exploratory and confirmatory Bifactor modeling. Assessment. 2019;26:1246–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191117715731.CrossRefPubMed

25.

Schneider EE, Schönfelder S, Domke-Wolf M, Wessa M. Measuring stress in clinical and nonclinical subjects using a German adaptation of the perceived stress scale. Int J Clin Heal Psychol. 2020.

26.

R Core Team. R: A language and eviornment for statistical computing. 2018. https://www.r-project.org/.

27.

Rosseel Y. Lavaan: an R package for structural equation modeling. J Stat Softw. 2012;48:1–36 http://www.jstatsoft.org/v48/i02/.CrossRef

28.

Revelle W. psych: Procedures for Psychological, Psychometric, and Personality Research. Evanston, IL; 2019. https://cran.r-project.org/package=psych.

29.

Bernaards CA, Jennrich RI. Gradient projection algorithms and software for arbitrary rotation criteria in factor analysis. Educ Psychol Meas. 2005;65:676–96 https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164404272507.CrossRef

30.

Kelley K. MBESS: the MBESS R package. 2019. https://cran.r-project.org/package=MBESS.

31.

Hardt J, Herke M, Leonhart R. Auxiliary variables in multiple imputation in regression with missing X: a warning against including too many in small sample research. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2012;12:184. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-12-184.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

32.

Satorra A, Bentler PM. Corrections to test statistics and standard errors in covariance structure analysis. In: von Eye A, Clogg CC, editors. Latent variable analysis: applications for developmental research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE; 1994. p. 399–419.

33.

Iacobucci D. Structural equations modeling: fit indices, sample size, and advanced topics. J Consum Psychol. 2010;20:90–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2009.09.003.CrossRef

34.

Gorsuch R. Exploratory factor analysis: its role in item analysis. J Pers Assess. 1999;68:532–60.CrossRef

35.

Schermelleh-Engel K, Moosbrugger H, Müller H. Evaluating the fit of structural equation models: tests of significance and descriptive goodness-of-fit measures. Methods Psychol Res Online 2003;8:23–74. https://www.dgps.de/fachgruppen/methoden/mpr-online/issue20/art2/mpr130_13.pdf. Accessed 8 Feb 2019.

36.

Milfont TL, Fischer R. Testing measurement invariance across groups: applications in cross-cultural research. Int J Psychol Res. 2010;3:111.CrossRef

37.

Chen FF. Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Struct Equ Model. 2007;14:464–504.CrossRef

38.

Nunnally JC, Bernstein IH. Psychometric theory. 3rd edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, inc.; 1994.

39.

McDonald RP. Test theory: a unified approach. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.; 1999.

40.

Padilla MA, Divers J. Bootstrap Interval Estimation of Reliability via Coefficient Omega. J Mod Appl Stat Methods. 2013;12:13. https://doi.org/10.22237/jmasm/1367381520.CrossRef

41.

Cohen J. A power primer. Psychol Bull. 1992;112:155–9.CrossRefPubMed

42.

Aichberger MC, Bromand Z, Rapp MA, Yesil R, Montesinos AH, Temur-Erman S, et al. Perceived ethnic discrimination, acculturation, and psychological distress in women of Turkish origin in Germany. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2015;50:1691–700. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-015-1105-3.CrossRefPubMed

43.

Nesterko Y, Friedrich M, Brähler E, Hinz A, Glaesmer H. Mental health among immigrants in Germany - the impact of self-attribution and attribution by others as an immigrant. BMC Public Health. 2019;19:1697. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-8060-y.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

44.

Helios M, Rosario D. Package “pwr” title basic functions for power analysis. 2020.

Title: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) psychometric properties in migrants and native Germans
Authors: Christina Diane Bastianon
Eva M. Klein
Ana Nanette Tibubos
Elmar Brähler
Manfred E. Beutel
Katja Petrowski
Publication date: 01-12-2020
Publisher: BioMed Central
Published in: BMC Psychiatry / Issue 1/2020
Electronic ISSN: 1471-244X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-02851-2

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) psychometric properties in migrants and native Germans

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 1/2020

Adult ADHD screening scores and hospitalization due to pedestrian injuries: a case-control study

Correction to: The prevalence and associated factors of alcohol use among pregnant women attending antenatal care at public hospitals Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2019

Striving for a more person-centered psychosis care: results of a hospital-based multi-professional educational intervention

COPe-support - a multi-component digital intervention for family carers for people affected by psychosis: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

The influence of antidepressant and psychotherapy treatment adherence on future work leaves for patients with major depressive disorder

How do education and experience with mental illness interact with causal beliefs, eligible treatments and stigmatising attitudes towards schizophrenia? A comparison between mental health professionals, psychology students, relatives and patients