"Hassles" in the Conceptualization and Measurement of Life Stress Variables

In a recent study, we found evidence that items in several leading stress measures, including the Hassles Scale developed by Lazarus and his colleagues, are confounded with measures of psychological distress. Lazarus, DeLongis, Folkman, and Gruen disagree with our conclusions about the Hassles Scale and present additional data indicating that their measure is not confounded. They also argue in more general terms that our theoretical and methodological approach is a misguided quest for rigor. By way of rebuttal, we present further analyses of their own data and compare our theoretical approach to theirs. On the matter of confounding, we conclude that the Hassles Scale is even more confounded than we had originally supposed. With regard to the theoretical issue, we believe that a rapprochement would be both feasible and useful.