Page 176 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 14

Exploratory Analysis of the CHOPS Stress In- mely high. In the comments section, 294 of the
ventory respondents provided specific stressors. These
The analyses of the CHOPS Stress Inventory were not categorized or rated according to the
(O’Donnell et al., 2015) were aimed at assessing ten areas, but some of the stressors listed inclu-
its initial psychometric support. Internal consi- de weather-related stressors such as oppressive
stency was good (Cronbach’s α = 0.82), and cor- heat and tornadoes, daily hassles, government
relation with PSS total score was moderate (r = red tape, visa issues, addictions, friends dying
0.62, p<0.001). while on the field, deaths in close family mem-
bers or friends back home, missing events back
home, serious health issu-
es, work issues, re-entry
issues, financial problems,
marriage problems, pro-
blems child-rearing or
schooling, aging parents,
corruption, loneliness,
depression, other mental
health issues, power ou-
tages, dangerous traffic,
safety in country, sexual
assault, assaults, interper-
sonal and team conflicts,
conflicts with leaders, spi-
ritual warfare, armed con-
flict, political or military
conflict, terrorism and ter-
rorist attacks.

Figure 3. Scatterplot of CHOPS Stress Inventory with PSS Validity of Survey Responses
Total Score. r = 0.62, p < 0.001 In order to determine the extent to which re-
spondents’ answers may have been driven by
The categories of the CHOPS Stress Inventory social desirability, the Short form C Marlowe-
were assessed as to which of the ten categories Crowne scale (Reynolds, 1982) was embedded
representing various stressors (Cultural, Cri- into the survey questions. The Marlowe-Crow-
ses, Historical, Human, Occupational, Organi- ne scale showed weak correlations with the PSS
zational, Physical, Psychological, Support, and (r = 0.25, p<0.001) and the CHOPS (r = 0.21, p
Spiritual) were rated to be most stressful. The = 0.003).
participants were also asked to rate their overall
level of stress over the past month in a summa- Discussion
ry question. In each of the categories, the par- This study found that both age and sex demon-
ticipants were asked to rate the level over the strated significant effects on the perception of
past month as minimal, low, moderate, high, or stress in the missionary population. In additi-
extremely high. The rounded-off percentages on, the newly developed quantitative CHOPS
of the moderate, high, and extremely high ra- Stress Inventory demonstrated good initial psy-
tings of stress indicate the top categories for this chometric features when compared to an esta-
sample were: Occupational (72%), Human /In- blished stress measure (the PSS), which makes
terpersonal (65%), Psychological (57%), Cultu- it a potential instrument to use in cross-cultu-
ral (52%), and Spiritual (46%). Sixty-eight per- ral missionary populations. The results of the
cent (68%) of the sample rated the overall stress CHOPS Stress Inventory suggested that work-
of the past month as moderate, high, and extre-
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