The Maugeri Stress Index – reduced form: a questionnaire for job stress assessment

Davide Massidda,1 Ines Giorgi,2 Giulio Vidotto,3 Salvatore Tringali,4 Marcello Imbriani,4,5 Paola Baiardi,6 Giorgio Bertolotti7 1Giunti O.S. Organizzazioni Speciali, Firenze, Italy; 2Psychology Unit, ICS Maugeri, IRCCS, Pavia, Italy; 3Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy; 4ICS Maugeri, IRCCS, UOOML, Pavia, Italy; 5Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy; 6Scientific Direction, ICS Maugeri, IRCCS, Pavia, Italy; 7Psychology Unit, ICS Maugeri, IRCCS, Tradate, Italy Introduction and objectives: A multidimensional self-report questionnaire to evaluate job-related stress factors is presented. The questionnaire, called Maugeri Stress Index – reduced form (MASI-R), aims to assess the impact of job strain on a team or on a single worker by considering four domains: wellness, resilience, perception of social support, and reactions to stressful situations. Material and methods: The reliability of a first longer version (47 items) of the questionnaire was evaluated by an internal consistency analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis. An item reduction procedure was implemented to obtain a short form of the instrument, and the psychometric properties of the resulting instrument were evaluated using the Rasch measurement model. Results: A total of 14 items from the initial pool were deleted because they were not productive for measurement. The analysis of internal consistency led to the exclusion of eight items, while the analysis performed using structural equation models led to the exclusion of another six items. According to the Rasch model, item properties and the reliability of the instruments appear good, especially for the scales for wellness and resilience. In contrast, the scales for perception of social support and negative coping styles show a lower internal consistency. Conclusions: The Maugeri Stress Index – reduced form provides a reliable and valid measure, useful for early identification of stress levels in workers or in a team along the eustress–vadistress continuum. Keywords: occupational stress, stress, psychometrics, questionnaire, validation