PERCEIVED STRESS SCALE 

by Sheldon Cohen 
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Copyright © 1994. By Sheldon Cohen. All rights reserved. 
 
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S P 
ERCEIVED 
TRESS 
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CALE by Sheldon Cohen 
The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is the most widely used psychological instrument 
for measuring the perception of stress. It is a measure of the degree to which 
situations in one’s life are appraised as stressful. Items were designed to tap how 
unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded respondents find their lives. The 
scale also includes a number of direct queries about current levels of experienced 
stress. The PSS was designed for use in community samples with at least a junior 
high school education. The items are easy to understand, and the response 
alternatives are simple to grasp. Moreover, the questions are of a general nature 
and hence are relatively free of content specific to any subpopulation group. The 
questions in the PSS ask about feelings and thoughts during the last month. In each 
case, respondents are asked how often they felt a certain way. 
Evidence for Validity: Higher PSS scores were associated with (for example): 
• failure to quit smoking 
• failure among diabetics to control blood sugar levels 
• greater vulnerability to stressful life-event-elicited depressive symptoms 
• more colds 
Health status relationship to PSS: Cohen et al. (1988) show correlations with PSS 
and: Stress Measures, Self- 
Reported Health and Health Services Measures, Health Behavior Measures, 
Smoking Status, Help Seeking Behavior. 
Temporal Nature: Because levels of appraised stress should be influenced by daily 
hassles, major events, and 
changes in coping resources, predictive validity of the PSS is expected to fall off 
rapidly after four to eight weeks. 
Scoring: PSS scores are obtained by reversing responses (e.g., 0 = 4, 1 = 3, 2 = 2, 3 
= 1 & 4 = 0) to the four positively 
stated items (items 4, 5, 7, & 8) and then summing across all scale items. A short 4 
item scale can be made from questions 2, 4, 5 and 10 of the PSS 10 item scale. 
Norm Groups: L. Harris Poll gathered information on 2,387 respondents in the 
U.S. 
Norm Table for the PSS 10 item inventory 
Category N Mean S.D. 
Gender 
Male 926 12.1 5.9 Female 1406 13.7 6.6 
Age 18-29 645 14.2 6.2 30-44 750 13.0 6.2 45-54 285 12.6 6.1 55-64 282 11.9 6.9 
65 & older 296 12.0 6.3 
Race white 1924 12.8 6.2 Hispanic 98 14.0 6.9 black 176 14.7 7.2 other 
minority 50 14.1 5.0 
 
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The questions in this scale ask you about your feelings and thoughts during 
the last month. In each case, you will be asked to indicate by circling how 
often you felt or thought a certain way. 
Name ____________________________________________________________ 
Date ______________ 
Age ________ Gender (Circle): M F Other 
_____________________________________ 
0 = Never 1 = Almost Never 2 = Sometimes 3 = Fairly Often 4 = Very Often 
1. In the last month, how often have you been upset because of something that 
happened unexpectedly? 0 1 2 3 4 
2. In the last month, how often have you felt that you were unable to control the 
important things in your life? 0 1 2 3 4 
3. In the last month, how often have you felt nervous and “stressed”? 0 1 2 3 4 
4. In the last month, how often have you felt confident about your ability to handle 
your personal problems? 0 1 2 3 4 
5. In the last month, how often have you felt that things were going your way? 0 1 
2 3 4 
6. In the last month, how often have you found that you could not cope with all the 
things that you had to do? 0 1 2 3 4 
7. In the last month, how often have you been able to control irritations in your 
life? 0 1 2 3 4 
8. In the last month, how often have you felt that you were on top of things? 0 1 2 3 
4 
9. In the last month, how often have you been angered because of things that were 
outside of your control? 0 1 2 3 4 
10. In the last month, how often have you felt difficulties were piling up so high 
that you could not overcome them? 0 1 2 3 4 
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References The PSS Scale is reprinted with permission of the American 
Sociological Association, from Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., and Mermelstein, R. 
(1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social 
Behavior, 24, 386-396. Cohen, S. and Williamson, G. Perceived Stress in a 
Probability Sample of the United States. Spacapan, S. and Oskamp, S. (Eds.) 
The 
Social Psychology of Health. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1988. 

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