PERCEIVED ENACTMENT OF AUTONOMY SCALE: MEASURING THE POTENTIAL FOR SELF-CARE ACTION IN THE ELDERLY (ROLE-MODELING).
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1991
Number of pages: 346
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Gerontology.
Description: Perceived enactment of autonomy (PEA) is sensing the ability to choose courses of action for one's self in accordance with one's goals to meet needs for both dependence and independence. PEA represents the potential for self-care action and conceptually links self-care knowledge, resources, and action in Modeling and Role-Modeling theory (Erickson, Tomlin, & Swain, 1988).

This study, designed to develop a reliable and valid instrument to measure PEA in elderly noninstitutionalized adults, was implemented in three phases.

During Phase One, the domain of PEA was specified and appropriate items were written. Two expert panels judged the PEA Scale items for face and content validity. In Phase Two, the PEA Scale was pilot tested with 20 subjects over age 65; face and content validity were again addressed.

The third phase was the main survey. Convenience and snowball sampling methods were used to recruit 296 subjects over age 60. Each subject completed four instruments, a Demographic Sheet, the PEA Scale, the Perceived Control Subscale drawn from the Goldberg Health Questionnaire (Goldberg, 1972), and the Revised PGC Morale Scale (Lawton, 1975).

Cronbach's alpha coefficient and principle component factor analysis followed by varimax orthogonal rotation were used to identify factors and items for the final PEA Scale. Cronbach's alpha was.87 for the 31 items on the final scale. Eight factors, accounting for 58.3% of the scale variance, were identified and combined to form three subscales which paralleled the original defining attributes of PEA--Voluntariness, Individuality, and Self-direction. Theoretical relationships were tested with Pearson correlations between PEA and perceived control (r =.52, p =.000) and between PEA and morale (r =.56, p =.000). Five predictors, morale, gender, age, perceived control, and level of education, identified by stepwise multiple regression, explained 39.1% of the variance in PEA (F(5, 257) = 34.60, p =.000).

These findings provided evidence of internal consistency reliability, and face, content, and construct validity of the PEA Scale. Implications for nursing practice, education, theory development, and research were discussed.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-04, Section: B, page: 1953.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1991.

School code: 0227.