The Negative Event Scale: measuring frequency and intensity of adult hassles.

This study examined the structure, concurrent validity and reliability of a hassle measure for middle aged adults in both event frequency and intensity recordings. The measure included a range of interpersonal day to day events and re-examined aspects of the primary appraisal confounding debate between Lazarus and colleagues (1985) and Dohrenwend and Shrout (1985). Of the 373 participants 73 percent were female, 72 were in paid work, 69 percent were in permanent relationships and 62 percent had children. Principal component analyses of separate hassle frequency and intensity scores highlighted components consistent with previous research. There were seven interpersonal and four non-interpersonal subscales associated with negative events with family and friends, work, health, money and household. The subscales had very good reliability and concurrent validity and there were generally strong correlations (i.e. up .84) between frequency and intensity scores for each subscale. Given some important sampling limitations (e.g. female overrepresentation) the findings show a psychometrically sound hassle scale for adults.