Perceived stress and perceived lack of control of Spanish education-degree university students: differences dependent on degree year, basis for admission and gender

Stress in higher education students is an issue of growing concern, as stress impacts
quality of life and has been linked to drop-out from higher education. The aim was to investigate how stress was related to how far along students were in their degree
program, using the Spanish Perceived Stress Scale (PSS10). We expected 1) first-year
education students to experience more perceived lack of control than second-year
students, 2) second-year students to experience more perceived stress than firstyear students. Participants were students in three university education-degree programs (N ¼ 399). The psychometric properties of the Perceived Stress (PS) and
Perceived Lack of Control (PLC) subscales were investigated using Rasch models.
One item was eliminated from each subscale. The estimated interval-level Rasch
scores were utilized for testing hypotheses with general linear models. Results
showed a somewhat more complex pattern than predicted as interaction effects
between degree year and gender and between degree year and basis for admission
were found.