Examining and measuring sources of stress in a sample of caregivers of children with special needs in Egypt: The Perception of Caregivers Stress Scale

This study aims to examine stress among caregivers of multiple disabled children and to develop and psychometrically assess an instrument to measure the sources of psychological stress among caregivers. The author developed a 24-item scale to measure the sources of stress among caregivers with (6–18) years old intellectually and physically disabled children. Experts (n = 12) provided a content validity of the instrument before it was administered to (n = 209) both male and female caregivers who are directly involved in the daily care of their disabled children. The experts’ agreement about the relevance of the instruments’ items to measure caregivers' perceptions of sources of stress related to the care of their children was 89%. Internal consistency reliability for the instrument was.86 (Cronbach’s alpha). Factor analysis resulted in four cohesive and theoretically meaningful factors, and there is evidence for convergent validity. The developed instrument is a reliable, valid and empirical measure to assess the severity of stress.