Total life stress: A multimethod validation of the construct and its effects on organizationally valued outcomes and withdrawal behaviors.

Measured the construct of total life stress using an 83-item checklist with 282 full-time, white collar administrative, health care, and clerical personnel working for 5 organizations (mean ages 37.45, 37.74, 36.15, 35.04, and 43.71 yrs). Checklist items concerned stressful job and personal life events. Regression analyses predicted 6 different organizational outcomes using the constructs of job stress, personal life stress, and total life stress, respectively. Greater understanding of the effects of stress was achieved when researchers recognized the separate effects of positive vs negative stress and considered the employee in a holistic perspective by taking into account the combined effects of job stress and personal life stress on employee well-being. Results provide evidence for the convergent validity of the total life stress construct as measured separately by its 2 components, total positive and total negative life stress.