Lesson Two - How to Evaluate Your Stress Level
Assessment Tools
Now that you have a good baseline of what stress is and the different components of what causes it, let’s take a look at a couple of different ways to test your stress levels.
General assessment tools for stress do not give exact or specific details about your stress levels but can give you a general idea of where your level is and what is considered an important stressor to test on. Work through these tests and take notice of the similarities and differences between tests and what seems like what the more important stressors in your life are.
- The first stress tool is from the Canadian Mental Health Association. It only has 25 yes/no questions and tallies your score for you. You can find the assessment tool at the Canadian Mental Health Association.
- Another stress assessment tool is the Ardell Wellness Stress Test. This test is fairly comprehensive across the areas of life (mental, physical, emotional, social, and more) and can be used for different ages. It also utilizes negative scores, which most assessment tools do not use.
- WebMD also has a stress assessment tool that calculates the score and gives easy to understand feedback about stress management. It is quick and the feedback is immediate.
- Finally, New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) has compiled some of the top stress assessments together in one booklet. It includes symptoms to look for, a perceived stress scale, another Ardell Wellness Stress Test, and a self assessment for coping. How to score each assessment is also included in the booklet, so you should be able to take each of the assessments and score them yourself.