Response Inventory Research Articles

Children's Environmental Response Inventory Among Finnish Adolescents

The Canadian Children's Environmental Response Inventory (CERI) was translated and administered to a group of Finnish schoolchildren aged between 10 and 15 years. The Directing Traits Test (DTT), which was developed in Finland, was given at the same time. Similar factors on the CERI and the DTT correlated positively and significantly. The Finnish results from the CERI test confirmed the age and sex distribution that was previously noted in Canada.

Stress, Job Satisfaction, Coping, and Psychological Distress Among Emergency Medical Technicians

Although several studies link job-related stressors with adverse reactions among emergency medical technicians (EMTs), more standardized research is needed, since much remains unknown about stress responses, coping styles and their consequences for EMTs. This paper presents the results of two studies. Study I investigated the relation between job-related stressors, job satisfaction, and psychological distress, while Study II investigated how coping is related to occupational burnout, job-related stress, and physiological arousal. Study I: Those EMTs experiencing greater job-related stressors are less satisfied with their jobs and more psychologically distressed. OBJECTIVE, STUDY II: To obtain preliminary information about which coping strategies are associated with greater feelings of stress and burnout and more intense autonomic nervous system reactivity. For both studies, EMTs from a large, urban, public EMS organization in the southern United States were asked to participate. Study I: Subjects completed an informed consent document, a demographics questionnaire, a measure of job stress (the Stress Diagnosis Inventory), a measure of job satisfaction (Job-in-General), and a measure of psychological symptomatology (Symptom Checklist-90, Revised). Pearson product-moment correlations were computed between the measures. Study II: Subjects completed an informed consent document, a demographics/information sheet, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and the Ways of Coping Scale (WOCS). They then completed 30 days of monitoring using the Daily Stress Inventory (DSI) and the Daily Autonomic Nervous System Response Inventory (DANSRI). Pearson product-moment correlations were computed between the measures. Study I: Those EMTs who experienced greater job-related stress also were significantly more dissatisfied with their jobs, more depressed, anxious, hostile, and endorsed greater global psychological distress. Study II: The Depersonalization subscale on the MBI correlated significantly with the following WOCS subscales: Accepting Responsibility, Confrontive Coping, Distancing, and Escape/Avoidance. Emotional Exhaustion on the MBI correlated significantly with Confrontive Coping, Escape/Avoidance, and Social Support, while data obtained on the 40 subjects who completed the daily monitoring revealed that DSI-Impact, DANSRI-Number, and DANSRI-Impact scores each correlated significantly with Accepting Responsibility, Confrontive Coping, and Escape/Avoidance. A significant portion of an EMT's job satisfaction and psychological well-being is associated with the degree to which they are experiencing job-related stress, and, furthermore, this distress level appears to be clinically elevated. This implies that in-service programs and psychological support services designed to help EMTs manage their job-related stress may improve job satisfaction and decrease psychological distress. The coping styles most consistently associated with maladaptive outcomes were: Accepting Responsibility, Confrontive Coping, and Escape/Avoidance. Thus, subjects who were more likely to handle stress with self-blame, aggression, hostility, and risk taking or with wishful thinking, escape tendencies, and avoidance were more likely to endorse more negative outcomes.

Project GREEN: The Effect of Gardening on Environmental Attitudes of Elementary School Students

Project GREEN (Garden Resources for Environmental Education Now!) is an educational tool to assist in the teaching of environmental education at the elementary school level. Project GREEN is different from many current educational practices because its major goal is to provide an interdisciplinary approach to environmental education by infusing activities centered around a hands-on tool, “the garden.” The main goal of this project included evaluating whether students participating in Project GREEN were developing positive environmental attitudes. Three schools throughout Texas participated in the study. Approximately 200 students were evaluated; 100 participants served as the experimental group and 100 non-participants served as the control group. Students were evaluated using the Children's Environmental Response Inventory (CERI), which measures students' attitudes about nature and human dominance over nature. This questionnaire also contained a section for biographical information. Comparisons were made between the experimental and control groups, as well as between gender, age, ethnicity, and time in the garden. Results examine the relationship between the garden program and environmental attitudes for both control and experimental groups.

THE SUICIDE INTERVENTION RESPONSE INVENTORY: A REVISION AND VALIDATION

The Suicide Intervention Response Inventory (SIRI) was developed by Neimeyer and MacInnes (1981) to assees the ability of paraprofessional counselors to recognize appropriate responses to suicidal clients. Although several studies have supported the validity of the scale, concerns have been raised about its ceiling effect when administered to more highly trained counselors. Psychometric improvements were therefore attempted, and the original dichotomous scoring system was replaced with a Likert scale format, in the SIRI-2. Because respondents were required to make more subtle judgments concerning the appropriateness of each response as defined by a criterion group of highly expert suicidologists, the ceiling effect that limited the use of the original measure was eliminated. Construct and discriminant validity were demonstrated in both verisons of the instrument. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability showed improvement with the SIRI-2. Overall, the SIRI-2 shows promise as an index of suicide counseling effectiveness, especially among more skilled counselors.

Development and validation of the pain response inventory for children.

Development and validation of the pain response inventory for children.

The situational response inventory: A measure of adaptive coping

Adaptiveness constitutes coping consistently with Stressors so as to reduce distress or, at worst, not aggravate it. Development and validation is described of a measure of adaptiveness, the Situational Response Inventory (SRI). It consists of 19 items offering alternative responses to stressful situations. Respondents receive one point for each response previously deemed superior to its alternatives by 16 experts on coping. The SRI shows adequate internal consistency and excellent stability. It correlates positively with problem-solving confidence and negatively with perceived stress. Correlation against social desirability is positive but weak. Confirmatory factor analysis supports two strong positively interrelated factors for adaptiveness in situations requiring active vs passive coping. Possible applications and further development are discussed.

Development and validation of the pain response inventory for children.

The Pain Response Inventory (PRI) was developed as a multidimensional instrument to assess children's responses to recurrent pain. The PRI assesses 3 broad factors—Active, Passive, and Accommodative—each with subscales representing specific strategies for with pain. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to derive and cross-validate the factor structure of the PRI in 3 different samples of children and adolescents: school children, abdominal pain patients, and former abdominal pain patients. The subscales were found to be internally consistent and reasonably stable. Validity of the subscales was assessed by examining the relations of particular strategies to various outcome indicators, including functional disability, somatization symptoms, and depressive symptoms. Results indicated that different types of health outcome were predicted by different patterns of PRI strategies, thus supporting the utility of a multidimensional approach to the assessment of responses to pain. With the formulation of the gate-control theory of pain (Melzack & Wall, 1965), it became generally recognized that the experience of pain is not a purely sensory phenomenon related to tissue damage. Rather, it is also influenced by cognitive, behavioral, and emotional factors. This model suggests that effective pain management cannot rely solely on interventions directed at the source of tissue damage but also must include interventions designed to modify psychosocial factors that affect nociceptive processing (McGrath & Hillier, 1996). This multidimensional model of pain has been the impetus for the rapid growth in behavioral science research on pain in the past two decades. Cognitive and behavioral responses to often studied under the rubric of coping with pain, are of particular interest because they may be amenable to change through interventions by health professionals. Moreover, such responses may significantly lessen pain and associated disability and thereby complement and even decrease the need for more invasive pharmacological or surgical interventions. Studies of adult pain patients suggest that certain strategies (typically ' 'passive'' strategies, such as taking to bed, restricting one's activities, or

The Development of an Environmental Values Short Form

Abstract The goal of the current study was the creation of a scale to assess environmental values in adults and, eventually, children. As a first step, several subscales from the Children's Environmental Response Inventory (CERI; Bunting & Cousins, 1985)—pastoralism, urbanism, and environmental adaptation—were administered to a college population and a short form was then constructed. Like the CERI, the resulting 31-item questionnaire assesses values related to conservation, pollution, and urban/natural environments and appears to display the reliability and discriminative properties of the original scale. Future research is needed to confirm that the new short form of this measure remains valid for adolescents and is thus applicable for parent/child investigations.

Violence and the Prevention of Violence

Adler, Leonore Loeb, and Denmark, Florence L. (Eds.). (1994). and the Prevention of Violence. Westport, CT: Praeger. 248 pp. Hardcover ISBN 0-275-94873-0, price $55.00. This small volume is an interesting assortment of individual readings on dif ferent aspects of societal and family violence that are presented in 14 chapters sandwiched between two meaty forewords, a preface, and a lengthy epilogue. A handy index and sketches of contributors round out the book. In the first foreword, Leonore Walker draws on her developmental work with battered woman syndrome to offer an exhortatory call for the study of violence prevention. Among her suggestions is that the acceptance of human diversity is a foundation for moving toward a nonviolent world. Benjamin Wolman extends this theme in a second foreword, in which he links violence and violent behaviors with biological drives for survival and dominance and calls for societal elaborations of moral development as the route to violence prevention. In their preface, the editors provide a cursory overview of the 14 chapters and hint about their purpose in pulling together this collection of readings. Their goal is to provide for readers the latest expert scholarship on causes of violence, the different manifestations and forms it takes not just in the North American context but in other societies as well, and to suggest effective strategies for the elimination of violence from our social lives. It is a noble undertaking, and their success should be measured more by their having attempted than by their having accomplished their goal. The first three chapters are grouped together under the heading of violence as a societal phenomenon. Although the heading is misleading, the chapters are interesting nonetheless. Here we find a collaborative (cross-cultural) essay by Tsytsarev and Callahan, suggesting an individual motivational model of violent behavior as an outcome of abnormal cravings for tension reduction, selfesteem, sensation seeking compensation, or communication. This is followed by Lee's report of his empirical research on the subcultural theory of violence (e.g., Are Southerners more violent than Northeasterners?), which uses, among other aggregated data, subscription rates to magazines that exhort masculinity and macho values. Rounding out this section is Takooshian's and Verdi's presentation of their self report instrument for measuring attitudes toward terrorism. Their documentation of the psychometric properties of this research tool is in the early stages, but the instrument is included in full for others who may be interested. Given the April, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing, attributed to domestic terrorists, their research is timely. The next section, Violence Involving the Young, includes five quite different topics. The first is Chisholm's very loosely argued chapter on contemporary U.S. childrearing practices as antecedents of violent youth. Given the expansive empirical base for this topic, one wishes for a more carefully articulated review. This is followed by Herman and colleagues' discussion of treatment issues for abused children. Their solid review is helpfully located within the growing literature on trauma in children. This is followed by a treatment insider's useful discussion of incest abuse among children; Meyer draws upon his extensive clinical experience in his inventory of issues and responses to child victims of familial incest. …

Belowground cycling of carbon in forests and pastures of eastern Amazonia

Forests in seasonally dry areas of eastern Amazonia near Paragominas, Pará, Brazil, maintain an evergreen forest canopy through an extended dry season by taking up soil water through deep (>1 m) roots. Belowground allocation of C in these deep‐rooting forests is very large (1900 g C m−2 yr−1) relative to litterfall (460 g C m−2 yr−1). The presence of live roots drives an active carbon cycle deeper than l m in the soil. Although bulk C concentrations and 14C contents of soil organic matter at >l‐m depths are low, estimates of turnover from fine‐root inputs, CO2 production, and the 14C content of CO2 produced at depth show that up to 15% of the carbon inventory in the deep soil has turnover times of decades or less. Thus the amount of fast‐cycling soil carbon between 1 and 8‐m depths (2–3 kg C m−2, out of 17–18 kg C m−2) is significant compared to the amount present in the upper meter of soil (3–4 kg C m−2 out of 10–11 kg C m−2). A model of belowground carbon cycling derived from measurements of carbon stocks and fluxes, and constrained using carbon isotopes, is used to predict C fluxes associated with conversion of deep‐rooting forests to pasture and subsequent pasture management. The relative proportions and turnover times of active (including detrital plant material; 1–3 year turnover), slow (decadal and shorter turnover), and passive (centennial to millennial turnover) soil organic matter pools are determined by depth for the forest soil, using constraints from measurements of C stocks, fluxes, and isotopic content. Reduced carbon inputs to the soil in degraded pastures, which are less productive than the forests they replace, lead to a reduction in soil carbon inventory and Δ14C, in accord with observations. Managed pastures, which have been fertilized with phosphorous and planted with more productive grasses, show increases in C and 14C over forest values. Carbon inventory increases in the upper meter of managed pasture soils are partially offset by predicted carbon losses due to death and decomposition of fine forest roots at depths >1 m in the soil. The major adjustments in soil carbon inventory in response to land management changes occur within the first decade after conversion. Carbon isotopes are shown to be more sensitive indicators of recent accumulation or loss of soil organic matter than direct measurement of soil C inventories.

Optimal inventory and disposal policies in response to a sale

We construct and analyze an EOQ-type model for a buyer who is just informed of a temporary sale. The buyer is assumed to have an option to place special orders and an option to dispose some of his on-hand inventory. The key feature differentiating our model from the extant literature on inventory models is that the optimal inventory and disposal policies are fully integrated and simultaneously determined. The optimal policies are fully integrated and simultaneously determined. The optimal policies are derived in closed form from comparing cost savings of various cases of strategies, and several interesting managerial insights are obtained by analyzing the closed-form optimal policies.

Evaluation of suicide intervention effectiveness.

Considering the prevalence of suicide and other forms of self-injurious behavior, it is ironic that relatively little attention has been paid to the training of mental health workers in suicide intervention. Still less effort has been spent in evaluating the effectiveness of such workers or the agencies in which they serve. We review the evaluation strategies that have been used to assess the process and outcome of suicide intervention, ranging from macroanalyses of the impact of crisis services on suicide rates in the community to microanalyses of the competence of individual suicide interventionists. Particular attention is paid to the Suicide Intervention Response Inventory, a self-administered test of suicide counseling skills whose validity, reliability, and practical utility suggest the benefit of its use in a broader range of research and applied settings. The advantages and disadvantages of each evaluation strategy are discussed, and guidelines are offered for the sophistication of future research and program evaluation efforts.

The prediction of somatic complaints using the Autonomic Nervous System Response Inventory (ANSRI) and the Daily Stress Inventory (DSI).

Understanding and prediction of veridical somatic complaints not caused by disease, dysfunction, trauma, or toxin, requires the assessment of at least two critical variables: predisposition to respond to stressors with peripheral physiological activation; and intensity/frequency/duration of stressors. The Autonomic Nervous System Response Inventory (ANSRI) and the Daily Stress Inventory (DSI) were used to assess these variables, and somatic complaints were recorded using the Wahler Physical Symptoms Inventory (WPSI). Subjects were 72 healthy undergraduates who completed the inventories and reported illness and medication usage over a 2 week period. Regression analyses showed that ANSRI, DSI, illness, and medication accounted for 35% of the variance in somatic complaints, though only ANSRI and DSI contributed significantly. Neuroticism (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire) did not add to R2, but did influence stressors' subjective impact. The correlation between regression equation-generated WPSI scores (derivation sample) and actual WPSI scores (holdout sample) was 0.59. A discriminant function analysis equation (derivation sample) applied to the holdout sample correctly classified 80% of the upper and lower third WPSI subjects. It was concluded that the ANSRI and DSI, and the variables they assess, are substantially related to the self-report of somatic complaints.

A Prospective Study of the Effectiveness of Brief Professionally-Led Support Groups for Infertility Patients

This study prospectively evaluates the effectiveness and patient acceptability of professionally-led support groups in alleviating psychologic distress in infertility patients. Sixty-four consecutive patients in a university hospital infertility program were administered a battery of psychologic tests before and after attendance at an 8 weekly session support group. The comparison group consisted of 35 consecutive infertility referrals to the same unit who were not initially offered the support group and were similarly tested over an 8 week period. Support group patients had significantly greater (p less than or equal to 0.01) entry than exit scores on several measures of psychologic distress and depression (the Beck Depression Inventory, the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, and the Global Severity Index, Anxiety, Depression, Hostility and Obsessive Compulsive Subscales of the Brief Symptom Inventory). The Avoidance Coping Style on the Moos Coping Responses Inventory was correlated with a higher Global Severity Index (p less than or equal to 0.01). Comparison group patients had similar psychometric scores to the support group patients at entry but showed no change over 8 weeks. Attenders expressed a high rate of satisfaction with the support group. Professionally-led support groups are a highly acceptable and effective intervention in self-referred patients in alleviating psychological distress related to infertility.

Reliability and validity of the suicide intervention response inventory

Abstract The Suicide Intervention Response Inventory assesses the delicate balance of responses needed when someone is suicidal. To assess its reliability and validity, 177 practice teachers and 26 crisis-intervention volunteers completed it before and after a suicide-intervention training package. Internal reliability was strong (coefficient alpha = .83). Validity was modest. On the positive side, practice teachers who received training improved as expected, and experienced crisis-intervention volunteers scored higher than inexperienced volunteers as expected. On the negative side, factor analysis resulted in low factor loadings that were inconsistent with those previously reported. Changing item format could lessen the ceiling effect found in some previous studies and probably enhance the usefulness of this instrument.

Short-term suicide awareness curriculum.

The present study attempted to determine the effectiveness of a suicide awareness curriculum and to assess two methods of presenting the information. It was hypothesized that students receiving instruction via lectures and handouts would score significantly higher than students who only received handouts. Dependent variables included the Suicide Intervention Response Inventory (SIRI), the Knowledge of Suicide Test (KOST), the Suicide Prevention Questionnaire (SPQ), and specific suicide-related vignettes. There was a significant main effect for treatment. Univariate analyses demonstrated significant treatment effects for all dependent measures. Two orthogonal contrasts demonstrated significant differences on the KOST and the vignettes, suggesting that the lectures were instrumental in the increased performance on those tasks.

A dispositional approach to hazard perception: Preliminary development of the environmental appraisal inventory

Recently more emphasis has been placed on the importance of variables that mediate person-environment relations. This paper describes the Environmental Appraisal Inventory (EAI), which is designed to measure three dimensions of environmental appraisal: (a) threat to self; (b) threat to the environment posed by environmental hazards, and (c) perceived control over environmental hazards. Hazards ranging from proximate indoor threats (e.g., office fumes) to large-scale outdoor threats (e.g., earthquakes) are included. Internal consistency of the EAI is more than adequate. Convergent and discriminant validity is explored using McKechnie's (1974) Environmental Response Inventory and Rotter's (1966) Internal-External Locus of Control scale. Perceived control over the physical environment as measured by the EAI appears to be distinct from Rotter's measure. The EAI has good psychometric properties, represents a previously untapped aspect of person-environment relations, and should prove useful as a mediating variable in several areas of environmental psychology.

Patrolling the turbulent borderland: managerial strategies for a changing health care environment.

Contemporary health services administrators face tasks of complex decision making. One approach is to identify the dominant problem, then respond. An inventory of such problems and responses can play a vital role in organizational survival.

The Autonomic Nervous System Response Inventory (ANSRI): discrimination among migraine headache sufferers, muscle contraction headache sufferers, and normal controls.

Twenty-three migraine headache sufferers, sixteen muscle contraction headache sufferers, and thirteen no headache control subjects were selected to test the discriminant validity of the ANSRI. Significant Chi-Squares indicated reliable differences among the groups in ANSRI F scale scores under the Anger condition and in P scale scores based on the means of items across four emotions (All E). Discriminant analyses yielded 69% correct classifications for All E P scales and 58% correct classifications for Anger F scales. All E P scale analyses revealed that the Muscle Tension scale separated the headache groups from the control group. A second function separated the three groups from each other, with the Cardiac, Respiration, and Gastrointestinal scales most responsible. Anger F scale analysis showed the Peripheral Vasoconstriction, Cardiac, and Pattern 2 scales separating the headache groups from each other and from the control group. Results demonstrated discriminant validity for the ANSRI, and were consistent with muscle tension and vasoconstriction as variables in muscle contraction and migraine headache, respectively.

Factorial structure of the suicide intervention response inventory.

Previous research has reported the development and validation of the Suicide Intervention Response Inventory (SIRI), a self-report instrument assessing a counselor's ability to select an appropriate response to the life-threatening client. The present study examined whether the response skill measured by the instrument might be multidimensional, rather than unitary as previously assumed. Inventories completed by 457 paraprofessional counselors from five suicide and crisis intervention services throughout the United States were factor-analyzed to yield their simple structure. Results suggested that the instrument is indeed multifactorial, with four component factors identified as Elaboration of the Complaint, Exploration of Suicidality, Involvement, and Reflection of Negative Feelings. The implications of these findings for training in crisis counseling and for the further psychometric development of the instrument are noted.