Development and validation of an inventory to measure stressful events: Findings from a population-based survey

Development of tools for measuring stress has been considered by mental health researchers for many years. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a "Stressful Events Inventory"(SEI) using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses.

Using a representative sample (n=6000) from all people who reside in Tehran, the validity of the inventory was confirmed by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and its reliability was also confirmed by Cronbachchr('39')s alpha.

Eleven major sets of stressful events were identified as follow: political problems (α=0.731), neighborhood’s problems  (α=0.739), livelihood problems (α=0.609), fear of the future (α=0.663), educational events (α=0.635), educational changes (α=0.704), individual changes (α=0.463), occupational difficulties (α=0.64), housing problems (α=0.69), problems related to occupational relations (α=0.46), and family problems (α=0.69). The value of correlation between the factors was equal to 0.82 and the value of variance determined by these factors was 0.49 (r^2=0.49). In the confirmatory factor analysis, these factors also had an appropriate fitness (RMSEA=0.02).

The developed instrument has suitable psychometric properties, which make it appropriate for future research on psychosocial stress.