Development and validation of the Valencia Eustress-Distress Appraisal Scale.

The current article presents the development and validation of the Valencia Eustress-Distress Appraisal Scale (VEDAS), carried out in two studies. In the first study, we subjected data from 603 Spanish social service professionals to principal axis factoring analysis, yielding four related factors (Relationships, Personal Accountability, Home Work Balance, and Workload) for both the eustress and distress scales. In the second study, we employed confirmatory factor analysis to test data from 431 Spanish social service professionals. Results yielded a four-factor structure for the distress (root mean square error of approximation RMSEA = .07; comparative fit index CFI = .98; non-normed fit index NNFI = .96; standardized root mean square residual ]SRMR[ = .06) and eustress (RMSEA = .07; CFI = .97; NNFI = .97; SRMR = .08) scales. The results suggest essential unidimensionality of the VEDAS, with one dominating dimension (Relationships) and three secondary dimensions (Personal Accountability, Home Work Balance, and Workload) for both the eustress and distress scales. The results provide evidence of the VEDAS's internal consistency reliability, criterion-related validity, and test-retest reliability. The VEDAS addresses a gap in currently available questionnaires, which include few tools to measure the coexistence of distress and eustress appraisals of the same demands.