NCJ Number
219003
Journal
Journal of Adolescence Volume: 30 Issue: 3 Dated: June 2007 Pages: 393-416
Date Published
June 2007
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This study updated and tested the reliability and validity of the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ), which measures dimensions of adolescent stress.
Abstract
The testing showed that the updated ASQ developed in the current study has potential for the measurement of adolescent stress in both research and clinical contexts. The ASQ consistently measured adolescent emotional distress and self-perceptions of stress experiences, indicating that the instrument is a valid measure of stressor experience. Moreover, the instrument showed good reliability both internally and across repeated testing. There were gender effects on ASQ scales, but these were no different than what the existing literature on gender and stress suggests. The lack of strong age correlates with ASQ scales suggests that the instrument has potential use across the entire age span of adolescence. ASQ scales yielded 10 internally reliable dimensions of adolescent stress, the nature of which were consistent with the available literature on adolescent stressor experiences. Scales related positively to measures of anxiety and depression and negatively to a measure of self-esteem. This suggests that they were valid measures of adolescent stress. Research currently underway is examining relationships between ASQ scales and broader measures of psycho-social adjustment, emotional experience, and academic performance. This study built on a previous instrument developed by one of the authors (D.G. Byrne) by asking adolescents themselves to contribute to a pool of new items that reflected stressors they had experienced. Four focus groups each consisted of eight participants. The adolescents also provided advice on the wording of the stressor items. This pool of items was then administered as a self-reported questionnaire to a sample of school-age adolescents (n=1,039). 6 tables and 103 references