Screening questionnaire

Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) Test

Cohen's ten-item Perceived Stress Scale measures how unpredictable and overwhelming the past month has felt — not how much stress you are under, but how much of it landed.

Published items
Not a diagnosis

Items: 10
Time: 2 min
Scales: 2
Scale: 5-pt

Free, no account needed. A screening questionnaire, not a diagnosis.

You'll find out: How unpredictable and overwhelming the past month felt, using the ten published PSS items.

Want to understand what you’re about to do? The sections below explain what this assessment measures, where the questions came from, and what you’ll see at the end. Already decided? The start button is up top.

What this is really asking

Most stress questionnaires count events: a move, a bereavement, a job change. The Perceived Stress Scale does something different and more useful. It asks how often, in the last month, you felt unable to control the important things in your life, felt nervous and stressed, or felt that difficulties were piling up faster than you could deal with them. Two people can face the same month and appraise it completely differently, and it is the appraisal that predicts health outcomes.

The ten items split into two strands that are scored separately here. Felt distress covers being upset, overwhelmed, and unable to cope. Coping confidence covers the reverse — feeling on top of things, confident about handling problems, going your own way. These are not simply opposite ends of one dimension: it is entirely possible to feel considerable distress while retaining a solid sense that you can handle it, and that combination behaves differently over time than distress without confidence.

The one-month window is deliberate. Perceived stress is expected to move, and the scale is built to detect that movement rather than to fix you at a level. It has been used across decades of research on how stress appraisal relates to immune function, sleep and cardiovascular health.

The parts it pulls apart

Felt Distress — Being upset, overwhelmed, unable to cope
Coping Confidence — Feeling on top of things

What lands on your screen at the end

You get a total in the standard 0–40 range with its band — low, moderate or high perceived stress — and both sub-scores charted, so you can see whether distress or a loss of coping confidence is doing more of the work.

Because this scale is about a single month, the result is framed as a reading of a period rather than a verdict on you. Taking it again after a month is the intended use.

Where these questions came from

PSS-10 (Perceived Stress Scale, 10-item)

Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4), 385–396. Ten-item form: Cohen, S., & Williamson, G. (1988).

This version: All ten published items with the original five-point frequency anchors and the standard reverse-keying of the four positively worded items, so the published scoring applies.

This is a screening questionnaire for reflection and education. It is not a diagnosis, and it cannot replace an assessment by a clinician. No account is required and your answers are not shared.

Common questions

What does the Perceived Stress Scale actually measure?

Your appraisal of the last month, not an inventory of what happened in it. The items ask how often you felt that things were unpredictable, uncontrollable and overloading. This is why two people with objectively similar circumstances often score very differently, and why the appraisal turns out to predict health outcomes better than an event count does.

What is a high PSS-10 score?

Totals run 0 to 40. Scores of 0–13 are usually described as low perceived stress, 14–26 as moderate, and 27–40 as high. Population averages tend to sit in the low-to-mid teens, so a score in the twenties indicates a genuinely demanding month rather than an unusual sensitivity.

Is a high perceived stress score a medical problem?

Not in itself. The PSS-10 is a research and self-reflection instrument, not a clinical screener with diagnostic cut-points. Sustained high perceived stress is associated with poorer sleep and physical health over time, so it is worth attending to, but the score is a description of a month rather than a condition.

Why does it ask about the last month rather than right now?

A month is long enough to smooth out a single bad day and short enough to still reflect your current circumstances. It also makes repeat measurement meaningful: the scale was designed to track change, and comparing this month to next month is where it is most informative.