The Development and Initial Validation of a Brief Daily Hassles Scale Suitable for Use with Adolescents

Abstract

Daily hassles are defined as “irritating, frustrating demands that occur during everyday transactions with the environment” ( Holm & Holroyd, 1992, p. 465 ). They need to be differentiated from significant life events, which refer to “environmental circumstance[s] that [have] an identifiable onset and ending and may carry the potential for altering an individual’s present state of mental and physical well-being” ( Goodyer, 2001, p. 204 ). Significant life events, such as the death of a family member or having a parent move out of home, typically occur infrequently and have readily identifiable onsets and endings. Daily hassles, on the other hand, such as those that come when interacting with family or friends, occur with regular frequency, and have less readily identifiable beginnings and endings. Previous research has suggested that the stress from ongoing daily hassles is detrimental to the wellbeing of adolescents ( Sim, 2000 ), and may be more important than significant life events for psychological adjustment in this population ( Goodyer, 2001 ). Three studies led to the development and initial validation of a brief daily hassles scale that could be used with adolescents. Study 1 drew on hassles identified in existing scales, hassles from the literature, a focus group with adolescents, and expert feedback to generate and finalize 69 daily hassle items. In Study 2, the items were administered to a sample of 212 adolescents. We then used item and exploratory factor analysis to reduce the number of items to 14, which represented two homogeneous and internally reliable subscales of family and peer/other hassles. In Study 3, the brief daily hassles scale was administered to a second sample of 236 adolescents. Here we tested the initial structure using confirmatory factor analysis and examined construct validity by testing the scale’s relationship with measures of depression, anxiety, and life satisfaction.