Review of the psychometric evidence of the perceived stress scale

The purpose of this study was to review articles related to the psychometric properties of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Systematic literature searches of computerized databases were performed to identify articles on psychometric evaluation of the PSS. The search finally identified 19 articles. Internal consistency reliability, factorial validity, and hypothesis validity of the PSS were well reported. However, the test-retest reliability and criterion validity were relatively rarely evaluated. In general, the psychometric properties of the 10-item PSS were found to be superior to those of the 14-item PSS, while those of the 4-item scale fared the worst. The psychometric properties of the PSS have been evaluated empirically mostly using populations of college students or workers. Overall, the PSS is an easy-to-use questionnaire with established acceptable psychometric properties. However, future studies should evaluate these psychometric properties in greater depth, and validate the scale using diverse populations.