Reliability and Validity of the Self-Help Strategies Scale: A Survey among Nurses

Abstract

This study aimed to verify the reliability and validity of the Self-Help Strategies Scale (SHS) that can be applied to nurses. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 779 staff working in three hospitals, and included items on demographic data, such as completion of mental health training, the SHS item pool, the 13-item Sense of Coherence Questionnaire (SOC), the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale K6 (K6) and the Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory (B-COPE). From all responses received, the responses of 248 nurses were analyzed. Based on exploratory factor analysis, two factors, [1^st factor: Ingenuity to care for oneself] and [2^nd factor: Examination and application of knowledge and information], consisting of 15 items were extracted for the SHS. The structural validity was confirmed by the goodness of fit based on confirmatory factor analysis using the two extracted factors. The convergent validity was confirmed by the correlation coefficient between SHS and SOC scores (r=.24; p<.01). The difference in SHS scores between the K6 positive/negative groups (p=.036) and those with/without mental health training (p=.003) confirmed the known-groups validity. The SHS and the six B-COPE subscale scores showed an approximately moderate correlation coefficient of r=.39 to .56 (p<.01), confirming the concurrent validity. Cronbach's α coefficient was .76 to .85 for each SHS factor, and internal consistency was confirmed. Therefore, the reliability and validity of the SHS were confirmed.