Development and validation of a Stress-related Vulnerability Scale

Abstract

In the last decades, an impressive body of literature has documented the noxious effects of emotional stress on mental and physical health (Lovallo, 2004). Also, evidence is accumulating that social relationships can have a positive impact on health (Cohen et al., 2000). Further, stress and support might interact, and an influential theoretical perspective hypothesizes that the belief that support is available reduces the noxious effects of stress on health. This is commonly referred to as the ‘stress buffering hypothesis’ and is supported by many studies (Lakey & Cohen, 2000). In stress research, there is an influential tradition which focuses on individuals' subjective evaluations of their abilities to cope with the demands posed by specific events or experiences, with an emphasis on perceived stressfulness of such events (Cohen et al., 1995). The literature on social support also suggests that the subjective perception of support has particular importance, as perceived support rather than objective support is associated with lower levels of autonomic activity, better immunosurveillance, and lower basal levels of stress hormones (Uchino et al., 1996). Several validated measures of perceived stress and perceived social support are available. However, there is a scarcity of instruments assessing both perceived stress and support that are short enough to be used in busy clinical routines. In this paper, we report about the development and validation of a short self-completed questionnaire, named Stress-related Vulnerability Scale (SVS), which enquires about both perceived stress and social support.