Development and validation of the Soweto Stress Scale: Mixed-methods, population-based study of adults living in Soweto, South Africa

Feziwe Mpondo, Andrew Wooyoung Kim, Alexander C. Tsai and Emily Mendenhall

Social Science & Medicine, 2021, vol. 281, issue C

Abstract: This article moves from ethnography to epidemiology to generate a locally specific assessment of stress and evaluates it correlates with general psychiatric morbidity. We conducted two related ethnographic studies of stress and distress in Soweto, South Africa (N=107). We then used these studies to develop the Soweto Stress Scale, piloted the scale, and then evaluated its use in an epidemiological surveillance study of stress and health (N=933). We used factor analyses to evaluate factor structure and maximum likelihood estimates to evaluate comparative fit indices. The Keiser-Meyer-Olkin test identified sufficient sample variation, and the scale was suitable for factor analysis. The confirmatory factor analysis supported a single-factor model with a χ2(df) (104) = 475.88; p < 0.001. Even though the comparative fit index/Tucker-Lewis index were poor and could not be improved, the Cronbach's alpha (0.81) was excellent, suggesting that the model was a reasonable representation of the data. The final model indicated that there was covariance between items and consistency with our theoretical concept of stress. The Soweto Stress Scale shows strong internal consistency and reflects a very localized view of social stressors and may serve to identify those with higher psychological morbidity. Given the racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity within South Africa, our emic stress scale was tested in a community sample but may be useful for screening individuals with higher levels of stress or psychological distress within clinical settings.

Keywords: Ethnography; Factor analysis/principal component analysis; Health psychology; Medical anthropology; Mental health and illness; South Africa; Stress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953621003555
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:281:y:2021:i:c:s0277953621003555

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114023

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().