Instructions: The questions in this scale ask you about
your feelings and thoughts during the last month. In each
case, please indicate with a check how often you felt or thought
a certain way.
1. In the last month, how often have you felt that you were
unable to control the important things in your life?
___0=never ___1=almost never ___2=sometimes ___3=fairly
often ___4=very often
2. In the last month, how often have you felt confident
about your ability to handle your personal problems?
___0=never ___1=almost never ___2=sometimes ___3=fairly often ___4=very often
3. In the last month, how often have you felt that things were going your way?
___0=never ___1=almost never ___2=sometimes ___3=fairly often ___4=very often
4. In the last month, how often have you felt difficulties were piling up so high that you could not overcome them?
___0=never ___1=almost never ___2=sometimes ___3=fairly often ___4=very often
This scale can be found in the following articles:
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 385-396. Link to full-text (pdf)
Cohen, S., & Williamson, G. (1988). Perceived stress in
a probability sample of the United States. In S. Spacapam &
S. Oskamp (Eds.), The social psychology of health: Claremont
Symposium on applied social psychology. Newbury Park, CA:
Sage. Link
to full-text (pdf)