Speakers
Description
This poster describes the development and empirical validation of an instrument for measuring state distress and eustress, the Di-Eu-Stress State (DESS) Scale. In five studies, we found support for the factorial structure, reliability, and stability as well as sensitivity and construct validities based on data from 591 undergraduates (three samples) and 307 employees (four samples). One exploratory and two confirmatory factor analyses supported a two-factor structure in both the working and the university student contexts: Distress and eustress. To confirm the temporal stability of the DESS Scale we conducted a retest reliability analysis with a working sample. Furthermore, the sensitivities of the Distress subscale (DESS-D) to different performance settings and the Eustress subscale (DESS-E) to different supportive environments were tested in an undergraduate and working sample, respectively. We evaluated the convergent and discriminant validities of the DESS subscales in both a working sample and an undergraduate sample. Correlations between the DESS subscales and several stress measures as well as neighboring and distant measures support the construct validity of the DESS Scale.
