Emerging evidence shows that the construct validity of commonly used chronic stress measures is questionable. Item response theory was used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Screening Scale of Chronic Stress (SSCS). Using multidimensional item response modeling of data from two population-based samples (N₁ = 5,379, N₂ = 504), we identified and conceptually replicated a five-dimensional model combining items of chronic stress, neuroticism (i.e., Big Five Inventory Neuroticism scale; BFI-N), and depressiveness (i.e., Patient Health Questionnaire depressiveness scale; PHQ-9). The findings suggested a major overlap of variance between items of the applied instruments forming a pronounced common latent scale, which appeared to be mainly based on the perceived extent of freely available energy (i.e., vitality vs. fatigue). Accordingly, the overlap between items of the PSQ, PSS, and SSCS was larger with PHQ-9 items than BFI-N items. Specifically, items of chronic stress seem to discriminate subclinical manifestations of fatigue, a core symptom of depressiveness. Subsequently estimated person parameters were used to predict hair cortisol concentrations (HCC), a physiological indicator of chronic stress. Controlling for potential confounders, only the common latent scale showed a weak association with HCC, whereas residual variance components were not predictive of HCC. This finding further supports the notion that instruments like PSQ, PSS, and SSCS show an impaired construct validity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

---

重新考虑自我报告的慢性应激的建构效度：多维项目反应理论方法。

新兴证据表明，常用的慢性应激量度的构造效度值得怀疑。项目反应理论用于评估知觉压力问卷（PSQ），知觉压力量表（PSS）和慢性应激筛查量表（SSCS）的心理测量特性。我们使用基于两个人口样本的数据的多维项目响应建模（N = 5379，N 2 = 504），我们确定并概念上复制了一个五维模型，该模型结合了慢性应激，神经质（即五种库存神经质量表； BFI） -N）和抑郁（即患者健康问卷抑郁量表； PHQ-9）。研究结果表明，所应用工具之间的方差存在较大的重叠，从而形成了明显的共同潜在标度，这似乎主要是基于对可自由利用能量的感知程度（即，活力与疲劳）。因此，PHQ-9项目的PSQ，PSS和SSCS项目之间的重叠大于BFI-N项目。具体而言，慢性压力项目似乎可以区分疲劳的亚临床表现，疲劳是抑郁症的核心症状。随后使用估计的人员参数来预测头发皮质醇浓度（HCC），这是慢性应激的生理指标。控制潜在的混杂因素，只有共同的潜在量表显示出与肝癌的弱关联，而剩余方差分量不能预测肝癌。这一发现进一步支持了PSQ，PSS和SSCS之类的工具显示出构造有效性受损的观点。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。