title: Affective stress responses during leisure time: Validity evaluation of a modified version of the Stress-Energy Questionnaire.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Psychosocial stress at work is one of the most important factors behind increasing sick-leave rates. In addition to work stressors, it is important to account for non-work-related stressors when assessing stress responses. In this study, a modified version of the Stress-Energy Questionnaire (SEQ), the SEQ during leisure time (SEQ-LT) was introduced for assessing the affective stress response during leisure time. The aim of this study was to investigate the internal construct validity of the SEQ-LT. A second aim was to define the cut-off points for the scales, which could indicate high and low levels of leisure-time stress and energy, respectively.
  
  
  METHODS
  Internal construct validity of the SEQ-LT was evaluated using a Rasch analysis. We examined the unidimensionality and other psychometric properties of the scale by the fit to the Rasch model. A criterion-based approach was used for classification into high and low stress/energy levels.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The psychometric properties of the stress and energy scales of the SEQ-LT were satisfactory, having accommodated for local dependency. The cut-off point for low stress was proposed to be in the interval between 2.45 and 3.02 on the Rasch metric score; while for high stress, it was between 3.65 and 3.90. The suggested cut-off points for the low and high energy levels were values between 1.73-1.97 and 2.66-3.08, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The stress and energy scale of the SEQ-LT satisfied the measurement criteria defined by the Rasch analysis and it provided a useful tool for non-work-related assessment of stress responses. We provide guidelines on how to interpret the scale values.
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Stress Medicine, Region Västra Götaland, Sweden Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Emina.hadzibajramovic@vgregion.se.
authors.forename: Emina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hadžibajramović
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Stress Medicine, Region Västra Götaland, Sweden Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Gunnar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ahlborg
authors.affiliation: Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Lund University, Sweden.
authors.forename: Carita
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Håkansson
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Åsa
authors.initials: Å
authors.lastname: Lundgren-Nilsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grimby-Ekman
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007899:Leisure Activities / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Cut-off points; Rasch analysis; Stress-Energy Questionnaire; leisure time; non-work stress; validation; work stress