DCAP/CTF UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA EVALUATION OF

PROGRAMS :

SCORING GUIDE FOR PERCEIVED STRESS SCALE

Produced by:

M. Felicia Woerner, MA Debra Nelson-Gardell, Ph.D., LCSW

DCAP Project Manager DCAP Project Principal Investigator
dcapdata@ua.edu dnelsong@sw.ua.edu
205.348.8011 205.348.2990

Box 870314
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0314
205.348.8011 (DCAP Project Office)
205.348.2991 (DCAP Project Office Fax)

Contract Number: CFTF Al Eval 2011-701

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This scoring guide was prepared by the evaluation team at the University of Alabamas School
of Social Work. This information is in the public domain. Readers are encouraged to copy
portions of the text and share them, but please credit:

The University of Alabamas School of Social Work

DCAP/CTF Evaluation Project, 2010-2011
Debra Nelson-Gardell, Ph.D., LCSW
M. Felicia Woerner, MA

The Perceived Stress 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.
http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~scohen/globalmeas83.pdf

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 SCORING GUIDE FOR PERCEIVED STRESS SCALE 10

PURPOSE AND USE

Although you are not required to score clients responses on the instruments, this scoring guide is
being provided for those programs who would like to compute clients scores. Scores are not to
be submitted on the evaluation website. This guide is being provided for your convenience only.
The scoring sheets in this document are NOT to be administered to clients. For copies of the
actual instruments, go to the http://dcapdata.ua.edu website, and click on the Outcome
Instruments link.

COMPUTING SCORES
The PSS consists of multiple choice questions. Items include choice on a 5-point agreement
scale. The points corresponding to each level of the scale are marked with boldfaced brackets:
[0], [1], [2], [3], or [4]. Items number 4, 5, 7, and 8 require reverse coding, which is reflected in
their corresponding brackets. To compute the total assessment score, sum all scale items. Total
scores will range from 0 to 40.

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 SCORING SHEET:

PERCEIVED STRESS SCALE

Directions: 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.

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
[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
[0] [1] [2] [3] [4]

3. In the last month, how often have you felt nervous and stressed? .... 0 1 2 3 4
[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
[4] [3] [2] [1] [0]
5. In the last month, how often have you felt that things were going your
way?....................................................................................................... 0 1 2 3 4
[4] [3] [2] [1] [0]
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
[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
[4] [3] [2] [1] [0]
8. In the last month, how often have you felt that you were on top of
things?.................................................................................................... 0 1 2 3 4
[4] [3] [2] [1] [0]
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
[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
[0] [1] [2] [3] [4]

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