The construct validity and internal consistency of the Postgraduate Stressor Questionnaire amongpostgraduate medical trainees

Objective: To determine the construct validity and the internal consistency of the PostgraduateStressor Questionnaire (PSQ) among postgraduate medical trainees hence it could be used as a validand reliable instrument to identify stressors among them.Methods: Items of the PSQ were derived from a review of literature on the subject and a discussionwith experts in the field. It comprised of 28 items with seven hypothetical groups. The content andface validity was established through discussion with experts from field of Medical Education andPsychiatry. It was administered to all participants (N = 34) of postgraduate personal and professionaldevelopment programme in a Malaysian university. Data was analysed using Statistical PackageSocial Sciences (SPSS) version 18. Factor analysis was applied to test construct validity whereasreliability analysis was applied to test internal consistency of the PSQ.Results: Thirty three postgraduate medical trainees participated in this study. Factor analysis foundthat the 28 items of the PSQ were loaded nicely into the seven pre-determined groups as their factorloading values were more than 0.3. The reliability analysis showed that the Cronbach’s alpha valuefor The PSQ was 0.95. Whereas, The Cronbach’s alpha values for academic, poor relationship withsuperior, bureaucratic constraints, work-family conflicts, poor relationship with colleagues,performance pressure, and poor job prospect domains were 0.63, 0.84, 0.81, 0.65, 0.73, 0.78, and0.70 respectively.Conclusion: This study showed that the PSQ is a reliable and valid instrument to identify stressors ofpostgraduate medical trainees. It is a promising instrument that can be used in future to explorefurther on this area.