Reliability and Validity of the Adolescence Stress Scale (ADOSS) for Indian Adolescents

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.