Assessing Stress in Cancer Patients: Factorial Validity of the Perceived Stress Scale in Iran

The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is one of the few instruments to measure a global level of perceived stress, and has been widely used in a range of clinical and research settings. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate psychometric properties of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) among cancer patients. The exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis methods and internal consistency coefficients were used to compute the PSS's factorial validity and reliability, respectively. This study 155 cancer patients (119 female, 36 male) completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). The results of principal component analysis (PC) with varimax rotation replicated 2-factor structure of perceived self-efficacy and perceived helplessness for cancer patients. Goodness-of-fit indices of confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the 2 extracted factors. Internal consistency coefficients for perceived self-efficacy, perceived helplessness and total perceived stress were 0/80, 0/60 and 0/76, respectively. In sum, The PSS appears to be a psychometrically sound instrument for measuring psychological perceived stress for Iranian cancer patients.