ABSTRACT
Background: Stress levels increase tremendously in adolescence. Indian adolescents derive much of their stress from school and family pressures. Developing a standardized tool to assess adolescent stress can help early diagnosis. This article aimed to assess the reliability and validity of the ADOlescence Stress Scale (ADOSS). Methods: ADOSS was administrated by trained interviewers to 100 adolescents (10-17 years) of both sexes in Chennai, South India. Salivary cortisol was used as an objective measure of stress in 40 adolescents. Reliability was assessed within a two weeks interval. Exploratory factor analysis was done for the baseline ADOSS scores. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha and spilt-half correlation), test-retest agreement (Kappa value), and inter-rater reliability (ICC) were assessed. Pearson correlation between salivary cortisol and ADOSS score was done. Results: The inter-factor correlation between the inherent four ADOSS factors (personal, academic, family, and social) was between 0.73 and 0.87, and split-half correlation was between 0.70 and 0.83, showing that the factors are reliable and coherent. Test-retest agreement was Kappa: 0.63, P = 0.001, and ICC was 0.84. Pearson correlation showed a statistically significant positive correlation between cortisol levels and ADOSS scores (r = 0.87, P = 0.001). Conclusion: ADOSS is a reliable and valid tool to assess the overall stress of Indian adolescents in the age group of 10-17 years.
