the german version of the perceived stress scale psychometric characteristics in a representative german community sample background the perceived stress scale cohen j health soc behav 2438596 1983 is a widely and wellestablished selfreport scale measuring perceived stress however the german version of the pss10 has not yet been validated thus the purposes of this representative study were to psychometrically evaluate the pss10 and to provide norm values for the german populationmethods the pss10 and standardized scales of depression anxiety fatigue procrastination and life satisfaction were administered to a representative randomly selected german community sample consisting of 1315 females and 1148 male participants in the age range from 14 to 90 yearsresults the results demonstrated a good internal consistency and construct validity perceived stress was consistently associated with depression anxiety fatigue procrastination and reduced life satisfaction confirmatory factor analysis revealed a bidimensional structure with two related latent factors regarding demographic variables women reported a higher level of stress than men perceived stress decreased with higher education income and employment status older and married participants felt less stressed than younger and unmarried participantsconclusion the pss10 is a reliable valid and economic instrument for assessing perceived stress as psychological stress is associated with an increased risk of diseases identifying subpopulations with higher levels of stress is essential due to the dependency of the perceived stress level on demographic variables particularly age and sex differentiated norm values are needed which are provided in this paper