| Abstract: | Abstract Contemporary research has shown that chronic hassles can be as debilitating as acute stress and may be more of a determinant in the development of mental and physical disorders. In fact, frequency and intensity of hassles can be better predictors of stress responses than major life events. Although daily hassles have been shown to be population specific, existing measures of hassles do not distinguish between the hassles that impact men and those that impact women, nor have they been normed on populations that are poor. The Hassles of Environmental Poverty (HOEP) Scale is a 74-item instrument designed to assess the stresses of daily mothering within the context of poverty. Items on the scale address mothering stressors with a level of detail not currently available in existing stress scales. In the paper, the authors report out the results of statistical analysis that were done on the field test respondents. The results indicated that the HOEP Scale can legitimately be used for practice and research purposes. |
