Abstract

Two independent attempts were made to revise the life stress scale for college student developed by Chon and Kim (1991), In study 1, 10 additional items were included together with 80 items previously selected by Chon and Kim (1991), A more representative sample was also included to reflect the more appropriate norm for Korean college students, and only frequency and importance ratings were examined, omitting the controllability rating from the previous format. This newly constructed scale was administered to 420 college students located in Seoul, Onyang, Taejeon, Taegu, and Chonju. The instruments utilized in the study were a newly developed life stress scale, Korean adaptation of SCL-90-R, Korean adaptation of CES-D, and physical symptom scale. Factor analyses revealed that seven factor solution was the best, excluding the grade area in the scale. The range of internal consistency for the scales were α=.72 (value) to α=.86 (future career). In study 2, since grade was frequently found to be important life stress area in other studies, consistent with the original one (Chon & Kim, 1991), another attempt was made to examine the validity of grade area as one of the important life stress areas for college students. Thus, another version of the life stress scale was constructed to include 12 items for grade area, and it was administered to 189 college students. The factor analyses revealed that grade area is as important as other areas. In addition, all scales were found to be satisfactory in terms of their internal consistency with the range of .75 through .88. Thus, a final version of a life stress scale for college students was constructed to include eight life stress areas: (interpersonal relationship), friend, lover, family, and faculty; (task-related stress), grade, economy, future, and value. This revised version of a life stress scale for college student are discussed with other findings.