Psychometric Properties of the Two-Minute College Stress

Scale

By

Halford H. Fairchild & Psych 104 Students

Pitzer College, Fall 2009

Introduction

Purpose: To develop a scale to assess “College Stress.”

College Stress is hypothesized to affect well-being.

College is hypothesized to vary in various subgroups.

Review of Literature

Although College Stress has been studied in numerous contexts (nationally & internationally), studies suffer from:

Lack of representative samplesWeak measures

Weakness of Existing Measures

Limited scope (range of questions)Not tied to a particular time frame

(e.g., stress experienced in the last week or month)

Ease of administration

Scale Development

BrainstormingKey InformantsPre-testing

Procedures

IRB Approval (wanting to finesse “informed consent”) - obtained at Pitzer, CMC and Pomona

20% Random Sample of dormsConvenience sampleVery high compliance (response) rates

(over 95%)

Sample Description

N = 932 (403 in random sample, 529 in convenience sample).

CMC (n=168), Pitzer (n = 405), and Pomona (n = 298).

433 (47%) male, 489 (53%) femaleYear in school: 229 (24.6%), 275

(29.5%), 182 (19.5%), 196 (21%)

Sample Description (cont’d)

African American 93 10.0%

Asian/Asian Amer/P.I. 115 12.3%

Latino/a 88 9.4%

White 518 55.6%

Other 41 4.4%

Mixed 62 6.4%

Sample Description (cont’d)

Baseball players 20

Football players 15

Water polo ?

Queer 37

International Students 87

Hong Kong students 180

Results

Top five stressors:Homework/workloadGrades and performanceTime managementCourse difficultyPost-graduation plans

Results (cont’d)

Bottom five stressors:Spirituality or religious issuesRoommate conflictsMinority statusFear of pregnancy or STDsSexual identity

Results (cont’d)

Scale ReliabilityTotal sample = .883CMC = .886Pitzer = .889Pomona = .858

Stress Scale Psychometrics

Mean = 1.21, SD = .52Skew = .422 (SE = .086)Kurtosis = -.056 (SE .171)

Shape of the Distribution

3.002.001.000.00

STRESSTOTAL

80

60

40

20

0

Frequency

Mean = 1.2125Std. Dev. = 0.51704N = 816

STRESSTOTAL

Campus DifferencesStress Totals (and SDs)

CMC (1.16, .5)Pitzer (1.26, .54)Pomona (1.15, .47)F(2,274) = 4.46, p < .05

Campus DifferencesSatisfaction Totals (and

SDs)CMC (2.02, .76)Pitzer (2.28, .86)Pomona (2.22, .82)F(2,855) =5.715, p < .01(PZ & POM were “equal”; CMC sig.

lower than the other two).

Validity Checks

Total stress related to doctor visits (r = .12, p < .01)

Total stress positively related to college satisfaction (r = -.26, p < .001)

More “minority status” and “cultural differences” stress for minority students.

Future ResearchExploring Factor StructureQueer ExperiencesEthnic Group comparisonsEthnic-specific analysesAthletes International StudentsHong Kong sampleGender DifferencesCampus Differences

Future Research

Comparisons Across CampusesComparisons Across Time