Problem: The assessment of hospital-related stressors experienced by child and adolescent patients on a psychiatric inpatient unit.
Subjects: Child and adolescent inpatients (N = 40) admitted to an acute, short-term psychiatric unit.
Methods: A newly developed stressor survey was administered to subjects to identify the most problematic stressors. Correlation analyses were used to assess associations between hospital-related stress and adjustment variables.
Findings: Broad domains and specific items of the most problematic hospital-related stressors were revealed. Also, higher levels of hospital-related stress were consistently associated with poorer hospital-based adjustment.
Conclusions: Implications for treatment include identifying hospital-related stressors for individual patients and providing interventions to enhance coping.