Introduction to the Bergen Social Relationships Scale (BSRS): A short questionnaire for the measurement of psychosocial stress in epidemiological studies

The assessment of stress in epidemiological studies is challenging. Stress has many conceptualisations: chronic versus acute, objective versus subjective, stimulus versus response, and individual versus organisational/societal levels. The measurement of psychosocial stress may focus on physiological activation, the measurement of stressors, or the subjective stress experience. Measurement may be guided by theory, but may just as well not. Kopp, et al’s (2010) overview of measures of psychosocial stress in epidemiological research focuses on demonstrably-reliable instruments “identifying predictors of health status at the population level and ... providing useful information about the psychosocial mechanisms by which stressors, perceived stress, and stress reactions might lead to deterioration of health” (ibid, p. 212).