Student Life Stress Inventory Case Study

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Instrument: The Student-Life Stress Inventory (SSI), (Gadzella, 1991) was the instrument used to assess its nine categories. The SSI is a 51-item paper and pencil questionnaire, consisting of nine categories (five stressors and four reactions to stressors). The five stressors are: frustrations, conflicts, pressures, changes, and self-imposed. Frustrations (seven items), assesses experiences dealing with delays in reaching goals, daily hassles, lack of sources, failure to reach set goals, socially being unacceptable, dating disappointments, and denials in opportunities. Conflicts (three items), assesses one’s choices between two or more desirable alternatives, between two or more undesirable alternatives, and with both desirable and undesirable …show more content…

Total SSI .92 DISCUSSION One purpose of the present study was to analyze the ratings of the items (and categories) of the Student-life Stress Inventory for the total group of 336 participants. Several computations were reported. First, the internal consistencies for the nine categories of the SSI varied from .61 (Self-imposed) to .86 (Conflicts). In the 1991 study 7 (Gadzella, Fullwood, & Ginther) with 95 subjects, the internal consistencies for the categories varied from .52 (Frustrations) to .85 (Changes). In the 2001 study (Gadzella & Baloglu), the internal consistencies for the categories varied from .63 (Self-imposed) to .86 (Changes) and .86 (Physiological). Overall, the internal consistencies (alphas) for the categories in the SSI from these three studies were very similar. Therefore, one can conclude that, even after 13 years, the categories in the SSI are fairly reliable in measuring the contents in the different types of stressors and reactions to …show more content…

Data were displayed showing the total ranges of the ratings, medians, means, and standard deviations for each of the categories. These data provide additional information that was not reported previously. From the data, one notes that the Self-imposed category (which included stressors one imposes on self) was the most stressful among the stressors categories. The Physiological category (which includes emotional and behavioral reactions) involved the most common reactions to stressors. In providing these additional data on the SSI, there should be a better understanding of how the SSI was constructed, and how it can be used in future research