The Index of Clinical Stress: A brief measure of subjective stress for practice and research

Although the relationship between stress and illness has been extensively explored in the literature, adequate measurement of subjectively perceived stress has proved to be problematic for both clinicians and researchers. Indices of stress associated with individual or family life events have correlated poorly with health outcomes, and physiological measures have proved cumbersome to administer and difficult to interpret. This article introduces a brief self-report instrument, the Index of Clinical Stress, and examines its psychometric characteristics. Findings indicate that the instrument has excellent reliability and factorial validity and good preliminary evidence of construct validity. Implications for social work practice and research are considered.