Psychometric properties of the Kingston Caregiver Stress Scale in Romanian caregivers of children and adults with disabilities.
The 8-item Kingston Caregiver Stress Scale gives reliable, fast stress data from Romanian caregivers of clients with disabilities.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested an 8-item Romanian form of the Kingston Caregiver Stress Scale. They wanted to know if the short form still gives clear, reliable scores for families of children and adults with disabilities.
Caregivers filled out the scale as part of their regular clinic visit. The researchers then ran math checks to see if the items hang together and truly capture stress.
What they found
The 8-item version passed every check. It showed strong internal fit, good reliability, and solid validity for Romanian caregivers.
In plain words: the short scale works. You can trust the score you get in under two minutes.
How this fits with other research
Saad (2025) reached the same happy result with a 15-item Parental Stress Scale in a giant sample of I/DD caregivers. Both studies say brief tools can screen caregiver stress without eating clinic time.
Christian et al. (1997) did the early groundwork with the HPPI, a free disability-specific measure that still predicts stress 18 months later. The new KCSS keeps that caregiver-first spirit but trims the item count even more.
Khanna et al. (2012) remind us that longer forms like the 21-item CGSQ also work well for autism families. Shorter is faster, but longer can give richer detail if you have the minutes.
Why it matters
You now have an 8-item, Romanian-validated option for quick caregiver stress checks. Slip it into intake packets, re-authorizations, or wellness visits. A clean score flags families who may need respite, parent training, or mental-health referrals before burnout hits services for the client. No extra languages, no cost, no lengthy interview—just print, scan, and act.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add the 8-item KCSS to your intake folder and try it with the next Romanian-speaking caregiver.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: The Kingston Caregiver Stress Scale (KCSS) was designed to measure stress in caregivers of people with dementia, but empirical studies have used this instrument to measure stress in caregivers of children and adults with disabilities, without investigating its psychometric properties. AIMS: This study analysed the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the KCSS in Romanian caregivers of children and adults with disabilities. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: A total of 276 familial caregivers of children and adults with various disabilities completed measures of caregiver stress and related concepts. After 3 months, 72 participants were retested. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: A new bifactorial model with eight items was compared against the originally proposed trifactorial model and a previously proposed bifactorial model with 10 items. The bifactorial eight-item model had the best fit indices (χ2 = 41.4, df = 19, p = .002, CFI = .981, TLI = .971, RMSEA = .065 [90 % CI = .038, .092]), along with good test-retest reliability and convergent, divergent, and predictive validity of anxiety and depression. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The KCSS is a reliable instrument for assessing caregiver stress among caregivers of children and adults with disabilities. Implications, limitations, and future research suggestions are discussed.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2021 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2021.103921