ON THE ADEQUACY OF THE INDIRECT METHOD OF MEASURING THE PRIMARY APPRAISAL OF HASSLES-BASED STRESS

This study tested the adequacy of the ''indirect method'' of measuring stress appraisal, used in the Inventory of College Students' Recent Life Experiences (ICSRLE), whereby severity ratings are eschewed in favour of selecting items which correlate positively with an independent measure of perceived stress. Undergraduate volunteers (n = 183) responded to the following measures: the ICSRLE; separate emotional-impact ratings of that scale's items; the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS); the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL), a measure of psychiatric symptomatology; the Health Problem Inventory (HPI), a measure of common physical ailments; and the trait subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T). Two distinct measures of hassles-based stress were compared: simple hassles-exposure, the ICSRLE, and a combination of hassles exposure and rated negative emotional impact, the ICSRLE-NEI. The ICSRLE correlated trivially and nonsignificantly higher with the PSS, the HSCL, and the HPI than did the ICSRLE-NEI. Furthermore, only the ICSRLE proved sensitive to a synergistic interaction effect of hassles and trait anxiety on psychiatric symptomatology. These findings support the adequacy of the indirect method of stress appraisal built into the ICSRLE.