VALIDATION OF THE LIFESTRESS INVENTORY FOR PEOPLE WITH A MILD INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY

The Subjective Stress Scale (SSS; Bramston & Bostock, 1994) was develo ped to measure stress in people with a mild intellectual disability. I n previous research, the SSS was found to measure two broad dimensions of stress (a) a General Worry factor and (b) a factor that tapped con cerns about Negative Interpersonal Relations (Bramston & Fogarty 1995) . The present study sought to continue this line of research by introd ucing a slightly modified form of the SSS, to be known as the Lifestre ss Inventory (LI) and examining the psychometric properties of the sca le when administered to a new sample of 221 people with mild intellect ual disabilities. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that three un derlying factors corresponding to General Worry Negative Interpersonal Relations, and Coping were sufficient to account for the correlations among the items in the LI. Rasch analysis indicated some improvements to the scoring format for the LI and also showed that the most easily experienced stressors were associated with the Negative Interpersonal Relations dimension. The refinements introduced by the LI and the fur ther demonstration that some of the broad stress dimensions identified in the general population can also be found in people with art intell ectual disability represent important milestones for researchers inter ested in exploring reactions to stress among this population. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.