Stress and Work with Substance Misusers: the development and cross-validation of a new instrument to measure staff stress

Abstract

Stress is an important cause of impaired fulfilment and functioning at work. While instruments exist to measure stress across different occupations, this article reports the development and validation of an occupational stress scale specific to staff working with alcohol and/or drug misusers. An item analysis of 195 responses to an initial 112- item questionnaire resulted in a 25-item instrument, the addiction employees' stress scale (AESS). The AESS demonstrates adequate reliability (range of alpha coefficients, 0.88- 0.92) and construct validity across two study samples, having returned expected statistically significant correlations with five validation criteria that included the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey. The AESS can be used to measure stress levels, to identify sources of stress for individuals working with substance misusers and to develop appropriate work-based stress intervention programmes.