The Perceived Stress Reactivity Scale for adolescent athletes.

Abstract

Individual differences play a significant role in the outcomes experienced by adolescent athletes, in what is a highly stressful period of their development. Stress reactivity is a stable individual difference underlying the broad variability in responses to stress, which has received very little attention within sport. Conventional physiological measures of reactivity can be time-consuming, costly, and invasive; therefore, this study aimed to adapt a self-report measure of Perceived Stress Reactivity for use with adolescent athletes. 243 adolescent athletes competing in various sports completed the Perceived Stress Reactivity Scale for adolescent athletes (PSRS-AA) along with measures of perceived stress, Big Five personality traits, and subjective well-being. The five-factor, 23 item structure of the original PSRS provided an adequate model fit for the PSRS-AA. There was good internal consistency and test retest reliability for the scale's measure of total reactivity. Total reactivity was positively associated with perceived stress, and negatively associated with emotional stability, extraversion, openness, and life satisfaction. Female adolescent athletes reported significantly higher stress reactivity than males. These findings provide good initial support for the use of PSRS-AA as a valid alternative to physiological measures of stress reactivity in youth sport contexts.