Taking the strain out of negative affectivity: Development and initial validation of scores on a strain-free measure of negative affectivity

The purpose of the present study was to validate a measure of negative affe ctivity (NA) that does not contain strain content: The Strain-Free Negative Affectivity (SFNA) scale. A 33-item Likert-type scale was developed based on the negative emotional reactivity component of Watson and Clark's consti tutive definition of NA and was administered to two separate samples (ns = 225 and 281, respectively) of college students (ages 18 to 46), along with several extant measures of NA. Five items eventually were removed from the scale. Results from both studies support the construct validity of the SFNA scores, indicating support for the SFNA as a worthy alternative to extant measures of NA, especially in research examining stressor-strain relations.