Translation and Australian validation of the spinal cord lesion-related coping strategies and emotional wellbeing questionnaires.

STUDY DESIGN

Representative community cross-sectional self-report survey of adults with spinal cord injury (SCI).

OBJECTIVES

To establish semantic translation and validation of the Swedish scales--the Spinal Cord Lesion Coping Strategies Questionnaire and the Spinal Cord Lesion Emotional Wellbeing Questionnaire.

SETTING

Adults on the Victorian traumatic SCI register and attendees of the nontraumatic outpatient clinic were invited to participate.

METHODS

Instruments were forward and backward translated to establish semantic equivalence. Principle components analyses were undertaken. Correlation and logistic regression analyses were conducted to demonstrate validity of the instruments using both positive (high quality of life) and negative (depression and anxiety) psychological outcomes.

RESULTS

The final sample consisted of 443 adults with SCI living in the community. Both instruments demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties. Univariate correlation analyses showed most of the new scale components displayed medium to large relationships in the expected direction with the psychological outcomes and the other subscales. Health status and helplessness were significant predictors of both the positive and negative psychological outcomes in the logistic regression analyses. Acceptance was significantly related to the positive outcome only. Female and incomplete tetraplegia categories were significantly and positively related to depression only.

CONCLUSION

Notwithstanding a few issues with some of the subscales, the results support the usefulness of these easy to use instruments and point to ways for further development of the scales.