The 21-item Stress of Immigration Survey (SOIS) assesses stress due to immigration-related issues. The mixed methods approach included concept development, pretesting, field-testing, and psychometric evaluation in a sample of 131 low-income women of Mexican descent. The SOIS assesses five domains of stress related to:
- Language (limited English proficiency)
- Immigrant status (lack of legal status)
- Work issues (disadvantages in the workplace)
- Yearning for family and home country
- Cultural dissonance within the U.S.
A 5-item short form is also available. The SOIS can help identify high levels of immigration-related stress in Latina women.
Citation: Sternberg RM, Napoles AM, Gregorich S, Paul S, Lee KA, Stewart AL. Development of the Stress of Immigration Survey: A field test among Mexican immigrant women, Family and Community Health, 2016; 39(1): 40-52. PMCID: PMC4747418
NOTE: An appendix that includes the 21 items in Spanish and English is only available in the print version of the manuscript. In the PMC Free Access version, the supplementary material must be downloaded via a link in the online version. Download manuscript PDF
Download the SOIS and Scoring Instructions
One file contains the English and Spanish versions as well as scoring instructions.
SOIS English and Spanish Versions and Scoring Instructions
Copyright and Permission
Although the SOIS is copyrighted, it is available without charge and no written permission is required for use. It is licensed using Creative Commons licensing terms CC-BY-NC-SA. If you translate the SOIS to another language other than Spanish, please send a copy to Dr. Sternberg for our records.
Funding
Funded by grant number P30-AG15272 from the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health and a grant from the Translational Science Institute (CTSI) Strategic Opportunities Support (SOS) Program.