THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE SELF-CONSISTENCY

The maintenance of self-consistency is a task that engages elderly peo ple, and it can be viewed as an indicator of how well a person can cop e with stress in the ageing process. However, there is no reliable and valid instrument to date that measures this phenomenon. To help elder ly people to accomplish the task warrants the necessity to develop an instrument to measure self-consistency. The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure self-consistency in elderly people with chronic conditions. The Self-Consistency Scale (SCS) was designe d and administered to hearing-impaired elderly people (n = 130) in the north-east part of the USA. Psychometric properties of the SCS were e valuated and the results indicated a promising psychometric integrity. The obtained alpha coefficient for the SCS total scale was 0.89, with a score range of 51-104 and a mean total score of 85-10 (SD = 11-04). Convergent validity of the SCS was established by correlating the SCS to a Visual Analogue Scale-A Sense of Self (VAS), r = 0.60 (P<0.01). Divergent validity with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was estab lished, r = -0.57 (P<0.01). Maximum likelihood factor analysis with ob limin rotation resulted in a two-factor solution: Factor I, self-knowl edge; and Factor II, stability of self-concept.