Peer ratings of chronic stress: can spouses and friends provide reliable and valid assessments of a target person's level of chronic stress?

Abstract

AbstractThe aim of this study was to determine whether spouses and friends could provide reliable ratings and discriminate between different sources of chronic stress as experienced by a target person. Further, this study assessed the convergence of self‐ and observer ratings of chronic stress. The target persons were 384 executives from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Observer ratings were obtained from 275 spouses and 127 friends of the executives. The results imply that both spouses and friends can provide reliable ratings of different sources of chronic stress, which are equivalent to the reliabilities observed in the executives' self‐reports. Two independent factor analyses suggested that the spouses and friends were able to discriminate between the eight distinct sources of chronic stress proposed by the Trier Inventory of Chronic Stress. Convergent validities within the pairs executive–friend (range: 0.30–0.57) and executive–spouse (0.30–0.54) were all significant and indicate good self‐observer agreement in ratings of chronic stress. Generally, stress scales capturing work‐related chronic stress were found to yield higher convergent validities than scales assessing chronic stress due to social events. The results of this study imply that chronic stress can be validly assessed by well‐acquainted peers and spouses. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.