Measuring stress in a clergy population: Lessons learned from cognitive interview testing of the Perceived Stress Scale with clergy
The most commonly used self-report stress measure is the ten-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), first published by Cohen in 1983. The PSS it seeks to measure one’s appraisal of stress, helplessness and self-efficacy. We determined how Christian clergy might respond to the PSS by conducting cognitive interview testing with a sample of twelve United Methodist pastors. Interviews were audiotaped and summarized, with content analysis conducted on the summaries. Data saturation was achieved. Participants reported strong negative reactions to PSS language like “upset” and “angered.” Although the PSS considers higher perceived control to be indicative of less stress, participants reported that they consider accepting lack of control as a sign of faith. Participants reported fears of being poorly regarded as religious leaders upon endorsing items like lack of ability to “handle personal problems.” Participants indicated that their theological beliefs of seeking God’s way and being faithful conflicted with items such as “things are going your way” and “you could not overcome.” When answered by Christian pastors, the majority of PSS items may be subject to under-reporting and response bias. Future research should identify valid stress measures for Christian clergy and assess the validity of the PSS in non-clergy Christian populations.
