SOI
Stress and Overload Inventory
This exploratory questionnaire distinguishes how stress shows up (overload, physical, emotional, and cognitive signs, difficulty recovering) from what fuels it (work or school, family and relationship, money, health, daily hassles). It helps identify where to act first and which source of stress to look into further.
- Number of questions
- 25 questions
- Estimated duration
- 6 minutes
- Language
- English
- Original name
- Stress and Overload Inventory
- Target audience
- Adults
- Category
- Stress
- Exploratory questionnaire
- Exploratory questionnaire
Preview of the 25 questions
Scoring & interpretation
Scoring
Signs
| Cognitive signs | 13 / 16 |
Difficulty concentrating, forgetfulness, mistakes, thoughts going around in circles.
Areas to explore: recent lapses and mistakes, mental load, thoughts that come back in the evening.
See also: Rumination and Worry Inventory.
| Overload | 10 / 16 |
The feeling of having too much to do and not enough time, mental load, demands that exceed what one can give.
Areas to explore: how tasks and responsibilities are divided, what could be delegated or dropped, how priorities are set.
| Emotional signs | 9 / 16 |
Irritability, nervousness, impatience, feeling at the end of one's rope or on the verge of tears.
Areas to explore: the situations that push the person over the edge, the effect on family and friends, moments of respite.
| Difficulty recovering | 7 / 16 |
Difficulty relaxing, switching off from worries, and enjoying downtime.
Areas to explore: the breaks actually taken, restorative activities that have been dropped, sleep quality, the boundary between work and personal life.
| Physical signs | 2 / 16 |
Muscle tension, headaches or stomachaches, racing heart, stress-related fatigue.
Areas to explore: the body signals that warn of overload, how they vary over the week, a medical opinion if symptoms persist.
Sources of stress
| Family and relationship | 4 / 4 |
Tension, conflict, or responsibilities within the couple or the family.
See also: Couple Relationship Inventory.
| Daily hassles | 3 / 4 |
Paperwork, housing, transportation, unexpected problems that pile up.
| Work or school | 2 / 4 |
Workload, demands, relationships, or uncertainty related to work or school.
See also: Work Exhaustion and Distress Inventory.
| Health | 2 / 4 |
Illness, pain, disability, or loss of independence, in oneself or a loved one.
| Money | 1 / 4 |
Financial difficulties, debt, fear of not having enough.
No validated clinical or psychometric cutoffs have been established for this test yet. The results should therefore be considered exploratory indicators, meant to support the clinical interview, not diagnostic findings.
Scoring
Each statement is scored from 0 (never) to 4 (very often) based on its frequency over the past month. Each domain in the signs block combines 4 statements spread throughout the questionnaire, giving a score from 0 to 16. The five sources of stress (work or school, family and relationship, money, health, daily hassles) are each assessed by a single statement, scored from 0 to 4, at the end of the questionnaire.
Reading the profile
There is no total score. Within each block, domains are ranked from most to least elevated, each with a description of what it covers and points to explore in the interview. The results show two blocks: the signs of stress, then its sources. Looking at both together shows what to work on first: the source that weighs most heavily, or the difficulty recovering when there are multiple sources.
Limitations
This exploratory questionnaire has not undergone psychometric validation and has no cutoffs. It supports the clinical interview and does not provide a diagnosis.
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