Summary

What it measures:

• PSS provides an objective score for an individual's stress level across virtually all types of patient populations. 
• Originally developed as a 14-item self-rated questionnaire but recently modified to a 10-item scale because of improved psychometric properties. 
• On the 10-item scale, some questions ask about times of stressfulness, anger, unpredictability, and overwhelmingness within the past month. 

This summary measures the tool's ability to quantify stress levels within an individual and contains information on use of this test in the general public.

The original copy of PSS contained 14 items, but we are primarily discussing the reliability and validity of the PSS-10 due to recent evidence showing increased psychometric properties compared with the 14-item scale.