The Psychology Student Stress Questionnaire

Abstract

Stressors of graduate psychology training remain relatively unexplored. The Psychology Student Stress Questionnaire (PSSQ) was developed to assess the impact of emotional, financial, and academic stressors of graduate psychology training on students. The PSSQ was administered, along with the Symptom Check List-90-R and the Health and Daily Living Form, to 133 graduate psychology students. Significant though limited correlations were obtained between the PSSQ and the two stress measures. Factor analysis of the PSSQ yielded seven underlying factors; time constraints accounted for the greatest variance in stress ratings. Female students had higher stress scores than males. These results suggest that the PSSQ could be useful in exploring student stress in graduate psychology training.