Staff stressors and staff outcomes in services for adults with intellectual disabilities: the Staff Stressor Questionnaire.
The 33-item Staff Stressor Questionnaire gives a quick, reliable snapshot of what stresses staff in adult ID services.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a 33-item Staff Stressor Questionnaire (SSQ).
They gave it to 223 staff who work with adults with intellectual disability.
The survey asks how often seven work hassles happen and how much each one upsets the worker.
What they found
The SSQ showed good internal reliability.
All seven sub-scales scored above 0.70, the usual cut-off for trust-worthy tests.
Factor analysis kept the same seven stress areas the authors predicted, so the items hang together.
How this fits with other research
Davis et al. (1994) and Matson et al. (2008) did the same kind of psychometric work. They also built and checked new tools for adults with ID, so the SSQ follows a proven recipe.
Li et al. (2015) validated Dutch empathy questionnaires. Their study and this one both show that careful translation and item testing can give reliable data, even when the topic changes from empathy to staff stress.
Ferreri et al. (2011) looked at aggression in Smith-Magenis syndrome. Their findings hint that challenging behavior is a big driver of staff stress. If you pair the SSQ with behavior data, you can test that link directly.
Why it matters
You now have a free, short tool that maps the pain points of direct-care staff. Use it during supervision or before training to see which stressors spike. Target those first with extra resources, role-play, or schedule tweaks. Less stressed staff stay longer and deliver better care.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This paper reports on the development, psychometric properties, and validity of a self-report measure designed to assess potential stressors among staff in services for people with intellectual disabilities, the 33-item Staff Stressor Questionnaire (SSQ). A questionnaire including the SSQ and scales measuring staff outcomes was administered to 512 staff across seven services for people with intellectual disabilities. The SSQ was factor analyzed to produce seven subscales reflecting different potential stressors for staff: user challenging behavior; poor user skills; lack of staff support; lack of resources; low-status job; bureaucracy; and work-home conflict. The SSQ subscales showed adequate internal reliability in terms of Cronbach's alpha and mean inter-item correlations. Associations between SSQ subscale scores and different staff groups, and patterns of associations between SSQ subscales and a range of staff outcomes, provided evidence suggestive of the face-, construct-, and criterion-related validity of the questionnaire. The SSQ shows promise as a measure for assessing potential stressors for staff in services for people with intellectual disabilities. Further studies to examine the reliability, validity, and utility of the SSQ are recommended.
Research in developmental disabilities, 1999 · doi:10.1016/s0891-4222(99)00009-8