<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><sec id="j_sjcapp-2019-011_s_001"><h3>Background:</h3><p>Stress is an important variable of consequence, particularly in adolescence, a period of intense physical and psychological change. The measurement of stress in adolescence has been widely discussed, and a number of versions of the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ) have been developed and validated. The present study sought to examine the psychometric properties (model fit, invariance, internal consistency, and construct validity) of the ASQ-S, which was recently developed in a Swedish context.</p></sec><sec id="j_sjcapp-2019-011_s_002"><h3>Objective:</h3><p>The study was a secondary analysis of data gathered on the full ASQ. The ASQ-S retained nine of the ten ASQ scales, and a study in Swedish adolescents suggested that the scale was psychometrically valid, gender invariant, and that scores were internally consistent. This is the first study to examine the properties of the ASQ-S in an English-speaking population. Participants were high school children in the UK (N = 610, 61.0% girls) from school year 8 through 12.</p></sec><sec id="j_sjcapp-2019-011_s_003"><h3>Results:</h3><p>Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed that the nine factor solution fit the data well (χ<sup>2s-b</sup>(288) = 751.60, CFI = 0.958, TLI = 0.948, SRMR = 0.040, RMSEA = 0.051 [90% CI = 0.047, 0.056]), and that scores were gender, school type (academic versus comprehensive), and school stage (junior versus middle high school) invariant. The nine scales correlated negatively with academic, social, and emotional self-efficacy scores, and self-esteem scores, to varying degrees. Girls reported higher stress levels than boys in six of the nine scales. A regression analysis, adjusted for gender and year in school, suggested that only the stress of peer pressure (negatively) was significantly related to adolescent alcohol use.</p></sec><sec id="j_sjcapp-2019-011_s_004"><h3>Conclusions:</h3><p>Overall this study suggests that the ASQ-S could be a valid measure of adolescent stress, although concerns remain regarding the convergent validity of scale scores.</p></sec></abstract>

Background:Stress is an important variable of consequence, particularly in adolescence, a period of intense physical and psychological change. The measurement of stress in adolescence has been widely discussed, and a number of versions of the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ) have been developed and validated. The present study sought to examine the psychometric properties (model fit, invariance, internal consistency, and construct validity) of the ASQ-S, which was recently developed in a Swedish context.Objective:The study was a secondary analysis of data gathered on the full ASQ. The ASQ-S retained nine of the ten ASQ scales, and a study in Swedish adolescents suggested that the scale was psychometrically valid, gender invariant, and that scores were internally consistent. This is the first study to examine the properties of the ASQ-S in an English-speaking population. Participants were high school children in the UK (N = 610, 61.0% girls) from school year 8 through 12.Results:Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed that the nine factor solution fit the data well (χ2s-b(288) = 751.60, CFI = 0.958, TLI = 0.948, SRMR = 0.040, RMSEA = 0.051 [90% CI = 0.047, 0.056]), and that scores were gender, school type (academic versus comprehensive), and school stage (junior versus middle high school) invariant. The nine scales correlated negatively with academic, social, and emotional self-efficacy scores, and self-esteem scores, to varying degrees. Girls reported higher stress levels than boys in six of the nine scales. A regression analysis, adjusted for gender and year in school, suggested that only the stress of peer pressure (negatively) was significantly related to adolescent alcohol use.Conclusions:Overall this study suggests that the ASQ-S could be a valid measure of adolescent stress, although concerns remain regarding the convergent validity of scale scores.

The shortened version of the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ-S; Sweden): a validation study in United Kingdom adolescents

Scandinavian Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Background:Stress is an important variable of consequence, particularly in adolescence, a period of intense physical and psychological change. The measurement...

The shortened version of the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ-S; Sweden): a validation study in United Kingdom adolescents

Published Online: Dec 11, 2019

Page range: 81 - 87

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/sjcapp-2019-011

Keywords
ASQ-S, adolescent stress, self-esteem, self-efficacy, confirmatory factor analysis

© 2019 Michael McKay et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The shortened version of the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ-S; Sweden): a validation study in United Kingdom adolescents

Published Online: Dec 11, 2019

Page range: 81 - 87

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/sjcapp-2019-011

KeywordsASQ-S, adolescent stress, self-esteem, self-efficacy, confirmatory factor analysis

© 2019 Michael McKay et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
ASQ-S, adolescent stress, self-esteem, self-efficacy, confirmatory factor analysis