Stress
How stressed you’ve felt
10 questions · 3 min
This is the most widely used questionnaire about how stressed people feel. Rather than listing stressful events, it asks how unpredictable, uncontrollable and overloaded your life has felt over the last month.
There’s no official line between low and high stress, so the most useful thing is to compare your result with your own earlier results over time.
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What it shows
How stressful and out of your control life has felt over the last month.
What it doesn’t
A diagnosis, or a measure of how much is actually happening in your life.
Who it’s for
This is for you if life has felt like a lot lately, or you’re not sure whether what you’re feeling counts as stress. Nothing dramatic needs to have happened: it’s about how things have felt to you.
It works well as a monthly check-in, for example during a busy stretch at work, exams, a move or a time of caring for someone. Over a few months you can see whether the pressure is building or easing.
Questions people ask
What does the Perceived Stress Scale measure?
It measures how stressed you’ve felt over the last month: how often life has seemed unpredictable, out of your control or more than you can handle. It looks at how you’ve experienced things, not at how many stressful events happened.
How long does the PSS-10 take?
There are 10 questions, and most people finish in about 3 minutes.
How is the PSS-10 scored?
Each answer scores from 0 to 4. Four questions are about coping well, so they’re counted the other way round, then everything is added up to a total from 0 to 40. There are no official cut-offs, so your result is described in rough thirds of the range, not compared with other people.
Is this a diagnosis?
No. It doesn’t diagnose anything, and it doesn’t measure how much is actually going on in your life. It shows how stressful things have felt to you.
How often can I retake it?
About once a month, because the questions ask about the last month. Your own results over time are more telling than any single score.
What should I do if my stress score is high?
If stress is affecting your sleep, health or mood, a doctor or counsellor can help you find ways to ease it. Talking it over with someone you trust can help too.
Where it comes from
Developed by psychologist Sheldon Cohen and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University in 1983; this 10-question version was published in 1988.
Perceived Stress Scale
On iPhone or iPad?
Sprout is an app there too, and this link opens the test straight away if you have it.
Coming soon to the App Store