Psychosomatic Complaints Scale of Stress: Measure Development and Psychometric Properties

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Abstract
A self-report measure of stress was developed and tested following Nunnally's (1967) three stages of construct development. The domain of indices, both physiological (somatic) and self (psychological) descriptors, was sampled and initially screened by experts. The items were then administered to a large sample of individuals employed by a large, city police department. Two sub-samples were formed representing different job classes; 781 police officers assigned to patrol duties and 271 officers assigned administrative duties. Because item response frequency distributions were non-normal, polychoric correlations were computed, followed by confirmatory, unrestricted least squares factor analysis in both samples. The factor analytic results support a single substantive dimension with a second, small method factor. A single somatic stress scale, based on the first factor, was then regressed against conditions of work and personal life known to be stress producing and demonstrated the expected relationships. Discussion of these results focused on the stability of the measure across populations, its theoretical meaning, its psychometric properties and how it fills a gap in the research that uses somatic scales of stress.

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