Adolescent Military Stress Measure (AMSM)

Abstract

The Adolescent Military Stress Measure (AMSM), developed by Gilreath et al. in 2023, is a specialized 21-item self-report questionnaire designed to assess specific stressors experienced by military-connected youth. This measure addresses limitations in existing adolescent stress instruments by focusing uniquely on challenges faced by military families, such as frequent relocation and parental deployment.

The AMSM development process began with 23 initial items, derived from Life History Calendar (LHC) interviews and focus groups with the target population. Following refinement through cognitive interviews and expert advisory board input, the measure was administered to military-connected adolescents across the U.S. Subsequent exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a robust four-factor structure, resulting in the final 21-item scale. Items use binary “yes/no” response options, and scoring involves summing affirmative responses, with items related to social support being reverse-coded.

Keywords

Adolescent Stress, Deployment, Military Families, Military-Connected Youth, Military-Related Stressors, Ongoing Socioecological Stressors, Relocation, Social Support.

Authors

Gilreath, Tamika D., Sullivan, Kathrine, Montiel-Ishino, Francisco A., Okoror, Titilayo.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Adolescent Military Stress Measure (AMSM) is to provide a dedicated and psychometrically sound instrument for evaluating military-related stressors specifically among military-connected adolescents.

The scale aims to differentiate between general adolescent stress and the unique socioecological challenges inherent in military life, offering researchers and clinicians a tool to better understand the risk factors contributing to psychological distress in this population. It facilitates the identification of specific domains of stress—such as deployment, relocation, and social support deficits—that require targeted intervention.

Construct

The AMSM measures the comprehensive, multi-faceted construct of military-related stress, which is conceptualized as encompassing environmental and familial challenges unique to adolescents whose parents serve in the military. The construct is empirically divided into four distinct subscales:

• Relocation Stressors: Stress associated with frequent moves, changing schools, and leaving friends behind.
• Ongoing Socioecological Stressors: Chronic, ambient stress related to the general military environment or community challenges.
• Deployment Stressors: Stress resulting from a parent’s active deployment, including communication difficulties and uncertainty.
• Social Support Stressors: Items assessing the lack of adequate social support, which are reverse-coded to reflect stressor presence.

Validity

The AMSM demonstrated both strong content validity during development and significant convergent validity in relation to psychological outcomes.

Content Validity: Content and face validity were rigorously established through initial Life History Calendar interviews and subsequent focus groups with military-connected youth. These steps ensured that the item wording was accurate, comprehensive, and representative of the lived experience of military-related stressors in adolescents.

Convergent Validity: Convergent validity was assessed using structural equation models and logistic regression, linking AMSM scores to measures of psychological distress. Results indicated that stress reported on the AMSM was significantly predictive of negative mental health outcomes. Specifically, logistic regression analysis showed that each additional stressor was associated with a 7% increase in feelings of sadness or hopelessness (OR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.01-1.12) and a 6% increase in suicidal thoughts (OR = 1.06, CI = 1.03-1.12). Furthermore, the Ongoing Socioecological Stressors subscale was found to significantly predict suicidality (b = 0.67, p = 0.05) within a structural equation model framework.

Reliability

The AMSM demonstrated good overall internal consistency, confirming its reliability as a measure of military stress.

Internal Consistency: The standardized alpha coefficient for the full 21-item AMSM scale was 0.86, indicating a high degree of internal consistency. The reliability coefficients for the four individual subscales were reported as follows, suggesting acceptable to good consistency across all factors:

• Relocation stressors: 0.74
• Ongoing socioecological stressors: 0.73
• Deployment stressors: 0.83
• Social support stressors: 0.69

Factor Analysis

The structural integrity of the AMSM was confirmed through both Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), supporting the final four-factor structure.

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA): EFA was conducted across five randomly selected datasets during development. These analyses consistently identified a clear four-factor structure, with each retained factor exhibiting an eigenvalue greater than one. The initial pool of 23 items was refined to 21; two items (“attending an off base school” and “residing off-base”) were excluded because their factor loadings did not meet the required threshold of 0.63 or higher on any of the identified factors.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): The results of the CFA provided strong support for the four-factor solution derived from the EFA. The model fit indices suggested an adequate fit for the proposed measurement structure, with key indicators reported as: RMSEA = 0.043, CFI = 0.969, and TLI = 0.964.

Instrument

Test Type: Original

Format: Inventory/Questionnaire. The measure consists of 21 items with binary “yes/no” response options. The overall score and subscale scores are calculated by summing the number of affirmative responses, with social support items being appropriately reverse-coded prior to summation.

Language Available: English

Population Group: Human; Male; Female.

Age Group: Primarily designed for Adolescence (13-17 yrs). It may also be relevant for individuals in School Age (6-12 yrs) and Young Adulthood (18-29 yrs) depending on the specific research or clinical context.

Population Details: Respondents are Military-Connected Youths aged 12 to 18 years old, typically residing in the United States.

Test Methodology: The development and validation of the AMSM utilized a comprehensive suite of psychometric methods, including Test Validity (Content Validity, Convergent Validity), Test Reliability (Internal Consistency using standardized alpha coefficients), Factor Analysis (Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis), and Structural Equation Modeling.

Keywords

Adolescent Stress, Deployment, Military Families, Military-Connected Youth, Military-Related Stressors, Ongoing Socioecological Stressors, Relocation, Social Support.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: 0000-0001-9545-9153 (Tamika D. Gilreath)

Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected] (Tamika D. Gilreath)

Correspondence Address: Texas A & M University, Department of Health & Kinesiology, Transdisciplinary Center for Health Equity Research, 267 Gilchrist Building, 4243 TAMU, College Station, Texas, United States, 77843-4243.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: Contact Corresponding Author (Tamika D. Gilreath) at [email protected].

Fee: No fee is required for the use of this measure.

Test Year: 2023

Files: No file is available.

Reference’s

Gilreath, T. D., Sullivan, K., Montiel-Ishino, F. A., & Okoror, T. (2023). Development and validation of the AMSM for military-connected adolescents. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 32(10), 2931–2943. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-023-02661-6

Items of the Adolescent Military Stress Measure (AMSM)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

No data is available.