DEVELOPMENT OF A TOOL TO MEASURE HELPFUL COPING BEHAVIORS IN WOMEN WHOSE HUSBANDS ARE ACUTELY CRITICALLY ILL (MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION, HEART ATTACK, Q-SORT).
Contributors: University of Maryland at Baltimore.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 338
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to develop a norm-referenced, Q-sort instrument to measure helpful coping behaviors in women whose husbands are acutely, critically ill. The disruptive nature of critical illness on the family system has been described; and wives of spouses who suffer myocardial infarction (MI) have been characterized by guilt, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and being over-protective of the husband. There has been virtually no reported research related to helpful, functional coping with an acute, critical health problem in an adult family member or spouse. Additionally, extant tools with which to measure coping were deemed inappropriate for assessing helpful coping in an acute, health-related situation.

The theoretical framework developed for the study conceptualized coping as having cognitive and motor behavioral dimensions directed toward mobilizing personal, family and community resources with coping choices being influenced by definition of the situation. The blueprint used for tool development utilized the conceptualization of coping, and all items were generated from that framework. The instrument contains 50 items to be sorted into seven levels of helpfulness, with a unimodal distribution, using a forced-choice format.

Two tests of the instrument were conducted. Subjects were 30 women whose husbands were hospitalized in critical care units (CCU) with a suspected or documented MI, and 30 women whose husbands were hospitalized in intermediate care units (INTER) with a documented MI.

Intrarater test-retest reliability in the two tests averaged .7139. All correlations except one were statistically significant at p = <.05.

Content validity was assessed by two panels of experts' evaluations and subsequent computation of item-objective congruence indices which ranged from .70 to 1.00. Percent agreement reliability among content experts ranged from 75% to 100%. Construct validity using an hypothesis testing approach, with the 30 women whose husbands were in CCU, and the 30 women whose husbands were chronically ill with long-term health problems, was not supported.

Coping behaviors "most helpful" to all groups were those related to health care providers. Prayer and resignation were "most helpful" to the CCU group, while information seeking and family strength were "most helpful" for the INTER group. Definition of the situation was not related to coping choice.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-08, Section: B, page: 2627.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND AT BALTIMORE, 1985.

School code: 0373.