Perceived Stress and Neuroticism in a Racially Diverse Sample: Is There Evidence of a Shared Latent Construct?

Theory and evidence suggest perceived stress and neuroticism share substantial variance, confounding stress measurement. In exploratory bifactor analysis of responses from 670 diverse adults, both measures loaded robustly on a general factor (negative emotionality) with measure-specific factors for low self-efficacy and low self-esteem, indicating significant overlap but also distinct variance.