Assessing momentary relaxation using the Relaxation State Questionnaire (RSQ)

Sarah Steghaus, Christian H Poth, Sarah Steghaus, Christian H Poth

Abstract

Stress is ubiquitous in everyday life and hazardous for mental and physical health. To prevent or ameliorate stress-related disease, relaxation exercises aim to counteract stress by inducing short-lasting states of relaxation on a regular basis. Critically, current assessments capture the mid- and long-term consequences of relaxation, however, cannot measure its short-term effects on an individual's momentary psychological state. To address this problem, we developed the Relaxation State Questionnaire (RSQ). We assessed the psychometric quality of the questionnaire by investigating its item properties, reliability, and validity in an online study with 92 participants. Construct validity was examined through correlations with the Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ; Fliege in https://doi.org/10.23668/PSYCHARCHIVES.2889 , 2009). An exploratory factor analysis revealed four factors capturing the momentary state of muscle tension, sleepiness, cardiovascular activity, and general relaxation. In a second online study with 99 participants, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis. Results revealed high item loadings (0.70-0.91), excellent reliability (α = 0.86) and excellent fit indices, and a good construct validity of the RSQ. These findings establish the RSQ as a tool to measure momentary states of relaxation. As such, the RSQ opens up research of the immediate subjective effects and the effectiveness of relaxation exercises.

Conflict of interest statement

Christian Poth discloses that he is a member of the editorial board of Scientific Reports. Sarah Steghaus declares that she has no competing interests.

© 2022. The Author(s).

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Structure model with parameter estimates. Note. Items are numbered as indicated in Table 2. All parameter estimates are standardized.

References

    1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health. 5 things you should know about stress (NIH Publication No. 19-MH-8109). (2019). at <>.
    1. McCallie MS, Blum CM, Hood CJ. Progressive muscle relaxation. J. Hum. Behav. Soc. Environ. 2006;13:51–66.
    1. Mars TS, Abbey H. Mindfulness meditation practise as a healthcare intervention: A systematic review. Int. J. Osteopath. Med. 2010;13:56–66.
    1. Varvogli L, Darviri C. Stress management techniques: Evidence-based procedures that reduce stress and promote health. Health Sci. J. 2011;5:74–89.
    1. Ong L, Linden W, Young S. Stress management. J. Psychosom. Res. 2004;56:133–137.
    1. Norelli, S. K., Long, A. & Krepps, J. M. in StatPearls (StatPearls Publishing, 2021). at <>.
    1. Stress in the modern world: understanding science and society. (Greenwood, 2017).
    1. Herbert TB, Cohen S. Stress and immunity in humans: A meta-analysis review. Psychosom. Med. 1993;55:364–364.
    1. Lloyd C, Smith J, Weinger K. Stress and diabetes: A review of the links. Diabetes Spectr. 2005;18:121–127.
    1. Tennant C. Life events, stress and depression: A review of recent findings. Aust. N. Z. J. Psychiatry. 2002;36:173–182.
    1. Jacobson E. You Must Relax. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc; 1934.
    1. Chaudhuri A, Ray M, Saldanha D, Bandopadhyay A. Effect of progressive muscle relaxation in female health care professionals. Ann. Med. Health Sci. Res. 2014;4:791.
    1. Wang C, et al. Tai Chi on psychological well-being: Systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Complement. Altern. Med. 2010 doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-10-23.
    1. Gruzelier JH. A review of the impact of hypnosis, relaxation, guided imagery and individual differences on aspects of immunity and health. Stress. 2002;5:147–163.
    1. Pal GK, Ganesh V, Karthik S, Nanda N, Pal P. The effects of short-term relaxation therapy on indices of heart rate variability and blood pressure in young adults. Am. J. Health Promot. 2014;29:23–28.
    1. Sawhney G, Jennings KS, Britt TW, Sliter MT. Occupational stress and mental health symptoms: Examining the moderating effect of work recovery strategies in firefighters. J. Occup. Health Psychol. 2018;23:443–456.
    1. Zeidan F, Johnson SK, Gordon NS, Goolkasian P. Effects of brief and sham mindfulness meditation on mood and cardiovascular variables. J. Altern. Complement. Med. 2010;16:867–873.
    1. Rausch SM, Gramling SE, Auerbach SM. Effects of a single session of large-group meditation and progressive muscle relaxation training on stress reduction, reactivity, and recovery. Int. J. Stress Manag. 2006;13:273–290.
    1. Fridhandler BM. Conceptual note on state, trait, and the state–trait distinction. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 1986;50:169–174.
    1. Steyer R, Schmitt M, Eid M. Latent state–trait theory and research in personality and individual differences. Eur. J. Personal. 1999;13:389–408.
    1. Crist DA, Rickard HC, Prentice-Dunn S, Barker HR. The Relaxation Inventory: Self-report scales of relaxation training effects. J. Pers. Assess. 1989;53:716–726.
    1. Smith JC. Smith Relaxation States Inventory 3 SRSI3. Lulupress; 2007.
    1. Smith JC, et al. ABC relaxation theory and the factor structure of relaxation states, recalled relaxation activities, dispositions, and motivations. Psychol. Rep. 2000;86:1201–1208.
    1. Hites LS, Lundervold DA. Relation between direct observation of relaxation and self-reported mindfulness and relaxation states. Int. J. Behav. Consult. Ther. 2013;7:6–7.
    1. Fliege, H., Rose, M., Arck, P., Levenstein, S. & Klapp, B. F. PSQ - Perceived Stress Questionnaire. (2009). doi:10.23668/PSYCHARCHIVES.2889.
    1. Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang A-G, Buchner A. G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav. Res. Methods. 2007;39:175–191.
    1. de Winter JCF, Dodou D, Wieringa PA. Exploratory factor analysis with small sample sizes. Multivar. Behav. Res. 2009;44:147–181.
    1. Sakakibara M, Teramoto Y, Tani I. Development of a short-form self-report measure to assess relaxation effects. Jpn. J. Psychol. 2014;85:284–293.
    1. Toussaint L, et al. Effectiveness of progressive muscle relaxation, deep breathing, and guided imagery in promoting psychological and physiological states of relaxation. Evid. Based Complement. Alternat. Med. 2021;2021:1–8.
    1. Harris M, Richards KC. The physiological and psychological effects of slow-stroke back massage and hand massage on relaxation in older people. J. Clin. Nurs. 2010;19:917–926.
    1. Benson H, Beary JF, Carol MP. The relaxation response. Psychiatry. 1974;37:37–46.
    1. McCorry LK. Physiology of the autonomic nervous system. Am. J. Pharm. Educ. 2007;71:78.
    1. Huelsman TJ, Nemanick RC, Munz DC. Scales to measure four dimensions of dispositional mood: Positive energy, tiredness, negative activation, and relaxation. Educ. Psychol. Meas. 1998;58:804–819.
    1. Fliege H, et al. The Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ) reconsidered: Validation and reference values from different clinical and healthy adult samples. Psychosom. Med. 2005;67:78–88.
    1. Hamaker EL, Nesselroade JR, Molenaar PCM. The integrated trait–state model. J. Res. Personal. 2007;41:295–315.
    1. R Core Team. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, 2020). at <>.
    1. Fox, J. & Weisberg, S. An R companion to applied regression. (Sage, 2019). at <>.
    1. Kaiser HF. A second generation Little Jiffy. Psychometrika. 1970;35:401–415.
    1. Bartlett MS. Tests of significance in factor analysis. Br. J. Stat. Psychol. 1950;3:77–85.
    1. Dziuban CD, Shirkey EC. When is a correlation matrix appropriate for factor analysis? Some decision rules. Psychol. Bull. 1974;81:358–361.
    1. Revelle, W. psych: Procedures for psychological, psychometric, and personality research. (Northwestern University, 2020). at <>.
    1. Moosbrugger H, Kelava A. Testtheorie und Fragebogenkonstruktion. Springer; 2012.
    1. Eid M, Gollwitzer M, Schmitt M. Statistik und Forschungsmethoden Statistics and research methods. Beltz; 2017.
    1. Rosseel Y. lavaan: An R package for structural equation modeling. J. Stat. Softw. 2012;48:1–36.
    1. Bernaards CA, Jennrich RI. Gradient projection algorithms and software for arbitrary rotation criteria in factor analysis. Educ. Psychol. Meas. 2005;65:676–696.
    1. Hunt, T. Lambda4: Collection of internal consistency reliability coefficients. (2013). at <>.
    1. Kaiser HF, Rice J. Little Jiffy, Mark IV. Educ. Psychol. Meas. 1974;34:111–117.
    1. Walker, J. & Maddan, S. Factor analysis, path analysis, and structural equation modeling. Stat. Criminol. Crim. Justice Anal. Interpret. 3rd Edn USA Jones Bartlett Publ. 325–51 (2008).
    1. Graham JM. Congeneric and (essentially) tau-equivalent estimates of score reliability: What they are and how to use them. Educ. Psychol. Meas. 2006;66:930–944.
    1. Green SB, Yang Y. Evaluation of dimensionality in the assessment of internal consistency reliability: Coefficient alpha and omega coefficients. Educ. Meas. Issues Pract. 2015;34:14–20.
    1. Reise SP, Bonifay WE, Haviland MG. Scoring and modeling psychological measures in the presence of multidimensionality. J. Pers. Assess. 2013;95:129–140.
    1. Catalán HEN. Reliability, population classification and weighting in multidimensional poverty measurement: A Monte Carlo study. Soc. Indic. Res. 2019;142:887–910.
    1. Steghaus, S. & Poth, C. H. The effects of video streaming on relaxation [Manuskript in preparation]. (2022). at <>.
    1. Brown, T. A. Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. (The Guilford Press, 2015).
    1. Jackson DL, Gillaspy JA, Purc-Stephenson R. Reporting practices in confirmatory factor analysis: An overview and some recommendations. Psychol. Methods. 2009;14:6–23.
    1. Cronbach LJ. Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika. 1951;16:297–334.
    1. Tavakol M, Dennick R. Making sense of Cronbach’s alpha. Int. J. Med. Educ. 2011;2:53–55.
    1. Handbook of multimethod measurement in psychology. (American Psychological Association, 2006).
    1. Borkovec TD, Sides JK. Critical procedural variables related to the physiological effects of progressive relaxation: A review. Behav. Res. Ther. 1979;17:119–125.
    1. Heppner WL, Shirk SD. Mindful moments: A review of brief, low-intensity mindfulness meditation and induced mindful states. Soc. Personal. Psychol. Compass. 2018;12:e12424.
    1. Costello AB, Osborne J. Best practices in exploratory factor analysis: Four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis. Pract. Assess. Res. Eval. 2005;10:7.
    1. Kyriazos TA. Applied psychometrics: Sample size and sample power considerations in factor analysis (EFA, CFA) and SEM in general. Psychology. 2018;09:2207–2230.
    1. Sommerfeldt SL, Schaefer SM, Brauer M, Ryff CD, Davidson RJ. Individual differences in the association between subjective stress and heart rate are related to psychological and physical well-being. Psychol. Sci. 2019;30:1016–1029.
    1. Roos A-L, et al. Test anxiety and physiological arousal: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Educ. Psychol. Rev. 2021;33:579–618.

Source: PubMed

Sponsorer og samarbejdspartnere

Medicinske tilstande

Narkotikainterventioner

3
Abonner