Tests · stress
Stress Test (PSS-10)
The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) is one of the most widely used tools for measuring how stressed you feel. Ten quick questions give you a clear read on where you are right now and what tends to tip you over. It's a simple first step toward understanding yourself and picking practices that actually take the edge off.
- 10 questions
- Cohen and Williamson, 1988
- About this test
About the PSS-10
How unpredictable, out of your control and overloaded your life has felt over the last month, added into one score.
- Developed by
- Sheldon Cohen, Tom Kamarck and Robin Mermelstein (14 items, 1983); Cohen and Gail Williamson (10-item form, 1988)
- Built and tested in
- College students, a smoking-cessation program and a U.S. national telephone poll
Where it comes from
Sheldon Cohen, Tom Kamarck and Robin Mermelstein published the Perceived Stress Scale in 1983 in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. The original had 14 items, written to capture how unpredictable, uncontrollable and overloaded people find their lives. They tested it in two groups of college students (332 and 114 people) and in 64 people in a smoking-cessation program.
The 10-item form used here came later. Cohen and Gail Williamson dropped the four items with relatively low factor loadings and tested the remaining ten in a 1983 national telephone poll of 2,387 U.S. adults. They reported it in a 1988 book chapter, which the developers' lab lists as the citation for the 10-item scale.
What the research found
In the 1983 samples, internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was .84, .85 and .86. Scores on a retest correlated .85 after two days in 82 students and .55 after six weeks in 64 smoking-program participants. Scores also correlated with life events, depressive and physical symptoms, social anxiety and use of health services.
In the 1988 national sample, the 10-item form had an alpha of .78, against .75 for the 14-item form. The average score was 13.02 (SD 6.35), with 12.1 for men and 13.7 for women. A 2012 review of 19 studies found the 10-item version's psychometric properties better than those of the 14-item and 4-item versions. A 2015 analysis of 1,236 U.S. adults found the items fit best as two related factors rather than one.
National surveys in 1983, 2006 and 2009 found higher stress among women than men, and higher stress with younger age, less education and lower income (Cohen and Janicki-Deverts, 2012).
How scoring works
| Score | Label | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 13 | Low stress | A convention, not an official range. The developers give no cut-offs. The average score in the 1983 U.S. sample was 13.02. |
| 14 to 26 | Moderate stress | A convention, not an official range. |
| 27 to 40 | High stress | A convention, not an official range. |
The developers' lab says the PSS "is not a diagnostic instrument; there are no score cut-offs." The boundaries of 13 and 26 are a convention that some published studies apply, for example a 2021 workplace study in the Kansas Journal of Medicine, and we didn't find a study that derived them. Treat the labels as rough descriptions of where you sit.
What it can't tell you
The scale was designed for community samples with at least a junior high school education. The authors called their 1983 samples younger and more educated than the general U.S. population, and the 2012 review found that most studies used college students or workers. The developers have collected no data for recall periods other than a month, guess that longer ones would be less accurate, and expect the score's link to later outcomes to fade after four to eight weeks.
It measures how stressful life feels, and that overlaps with low mood and anxiety. Cohen and Williamson discuss how hard it is to separate perceived stress from psychological distress. A score can't tell you what's behind it, and it can't tell stress apart from depression or anxiety.
How to use your result
Read the score as a snapshot of the last month. Take the test again after a few weeks or after a big change, and compare your own scores over time. A single number says little about what to do next.
If your score stays high for weeks, or stress is affecting your sleep, health or work, bring it to a doctor or therapist. To check mood and anxiety as well, try the DASS-21 test. For a way to settle in the moment, see how to calm down fast. If you're thinking about suicide, call or text 988.
More on this topic: Depression and anxiety test (DASS-21), How to calm down fast, Feeling overwhelmed: a CBT plan, Cortisol and stress.
Your answers
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Sources 12
- Cohen, Kamarck and Mermelstein, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 1983 (full text, developers' lab): the full article as a scanned PDF: abstract, the three samples, alpha of .84 to .86, retest .85 and .55, and the authors' note that the samples were younger and more educated than the general population.
- Cohen and Williamson, 1988 book chapter (full text, developers' lab): scanned PDF: the 10-item form, the four dropped items, alpha of .78 and .75, the 2,387-person national sample, mean scores, and the discussion of stress versus psychological distress.
- Developers' lab: scales page: states that the PSS has no score cut-offs and that permission requests go through ePROVIDE; no data on other recall periods.
- Developers' lab: PSS frequently asked questions (Word file, updated 2014): which citation to use for the 10-item scale, no cut-offs, and the terms for profit-making use.
- Developers' lab: PSS scoring: items 4, 5, 7 and 8 are the reverse-scored items; scores are summed across all 10 items.
- Developers' lab: PSS-10 form: the official item wording and the 0 to 4 response labels.
- PSS-10 on ePROVIDE (Mapi Research Trust): authors, year, copyright holder (RST Assessments, LLC) and conditions of use.
- Copy of the PSS information sheet hosted by the University of Colorado Denver: a third-party copy; it carries Cohen's 1994 copyright notice and his description of what the items tap.
- Lee, Asian Nursing Research, 2012 (PubMed): abstract only: review of 19 psychometric studies.
- Taylor, Psychological Assessment, 2015 (PubMed): abstract only: 1,236 U.S. adults, two-factor structure.
- Cohen and Janicki-Deverts, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2012 (Crossref abstract): abstract only: stress by sex, age, education and income in 1983, 2006 and 2009 national surveys.
- Bui et al., Kansas Journal of Medicine, 2021 (PMC): one example of a study applying 0 to 13, 14 to 26 and 27 to 40 as low, moderate and high; it gives no derivation.
Related: adult ADHD test, health anxiety test.