Tools &

Instruments
Summaries of Instruments James Neill
for analyzing personal & group change in psycho-social intervention &
Tools Index training programs, e.g., outdoor education
Last updated:

Ratings: Appropriate Usage:

A summative rating on the overall If you use any part or all of any of these
appropriateness of each instrument for use instruments, please contact the instrument's
in program evaluation research of psycho- authors so that your feedback and possibly
social intervention programs is provided. your data can be used for further instrument
The following criteria are considered in development. The instrument authors can
making the overall ratings: also usually provide additional background
information, latest versions and further
• User-friendliness & administrative research about the instrument.
ease
• Online availability
• Financial cost
• Short length (>15 mins)
• Availability of supportive materials
and technology to enter, analyse and
interpret results
• Availability of normative data
• Well-tested factorial structure,
reliability and validity
• Focuses on constructs which are
changeable and relevant to typical
intervention goals
• Applicable to wide range of
participants
• Can also be used as personal
development tool/exercise

• Overall value of the entire process of

using the instrument for program
evaluation purposes
Tool or Description Useful Contacts
Instrument
Adolescent The 79-item, 18 factor Adolescent Coping Scale (ACS) is More information
Coping Scale designed to measure the frequency of usage of a variety of
(ACS) coping strategies typically used by adolescents. The items were 1. Australian Council
generated through qualitative questioning and quantitative for Educational
piloting of an initial pool of items with Australian adolescents. Research
Copies of the ACS are purchasable from the Australian Council
for Educational Research Council for about AU$1 per 2. Erika Frydenberg
questionnaire. You can also get copies from AGS Publishing.
3. Raymon Lewis
Overall rating: 6/10.
4. James Neill

5. Bernd Heubeck

6. Debra Rickwood
Characteristics of Promising measure for getting participant ratings of key learning 1. Jim Sibthorp
the Experience processes in outdoor outdoor education programs. Uses 5
(COE) scales, personal and group empowerment, instructor support,
peer support, learning relevance. Could be combined with an
outcome measure such as the LEQ. Not used widely.

Overall rating: 6/10

Community This pilot survey is designed to measure a person's self- 1. Norm Staunton
Involvement perceived involvement in their community. It was developed 2. James Neill
Scale (CIS) using good principles of multi-item psychometrically sound
instrumentation as part of a graduate class and is specifically
designed as a way to measure the impact of intervention
programs which aim to increase engagement of individuals to
communities, but has yet to be pilot tested.

Overall rating: 5.5/10.

General Well For use with adolescents, Heubeck and Neill (2000) identified 1. James Neill
Being (GWB) / two main factors in Veit and Ware's (1983) Mental Health 2. Bernd Heubeck
Mental Health Index. One factor measures the level of occurrence of positive
Index (MHI) psychological well-being during the past month (or other time
frame), and the other factor measures the level of occurrence of
psychological distress during the same time frame. These two
"General Well Being" factors can be measured reasonably well
by 10 items each, making for a good, general measure of
positive and negative indicators of psychological well-being that
could be useful in evaluation studies of the effects of resilience-
building and psychological well-being enhancement programs.

Overall rating: 8/10.

Life Multi-dimensional measure of areas of personal effectiveness 1. James Neill
Effectiveness which are, theoretically, amenable to change through personal 2. Garry Richards
Questionnaire development programs. Has 9 scales (29 items) and has been
(LEQ) used in moderate amount of OE research.

Overall rating: 7/10.

Life Contains 17 scales, 65 items, constructed to assess typical 1. James Neill
Effectiveness outcomes of adventure-based youth at risk programs. Example
Questionnaire scales include: self-esteem, locus of control, communication
(LEQ) - Youth at skills, understanding personal boundaries, goal-setting and
Risk version healthy risk-taking. The tool is customizable (choose the scales
you want) and standardized instructions are available.
Approximately half the scales were adapted from existing
instruments and new items were generated to assess other
scales. Users should be aware that these new scales are in pilot
form. A short version of the instrument and an observer version
are also available.

Overall rating: 7/10.

Life Skills Multi-dimensional measure of 'life skills'. Four factors - social, 1. Jim Sibthorp
Questionnaire leadership, self-regulation. Not used widely.
(LSQ)
Overall rating: 5/10.
Locus of Control Locus of Control (LOC) refers to the extent to which an More information.
(LOC) individual views him/herself as causative or responsible for
his/her experiences. The scoring continuum ranges from 1. James Neill
external (perceives causes due to others, fate, god, etc.) to
internal (perceives causes due to self). Julian Rotter (1966)
developed the original 29-item Locus of Control (LOC)
questionnaire. Since then, many others have tested, criticized
and refined the concept and the measurement tool. Rotter's
LOC instrument is still in wide use, but increasingly people are
turning to more specific measures of Locus of Control (e.g.,
health locus of control) and / or to multidimensional measures.
Personal development intervention programs generally have
been found to be capable of having significant impacts on
creating more internal LOC.

Overall rating: 6.5/10.

Outdoor The Outdoor Situational Fear Inventory (OSFI) has been used to 1. Andy Young
Situational Fear measure the social-, physical-, and environmental-based fears of
Inventory (OSFI) participants in Outward Bound and in college outdoor education
programs. The OSFI uses a continuum scaling method in which
respondents place a slash mark on a 10-centimeter line
representing a continuum from "not at all anxious" to "very
anxious." The continuum-scaled OSFI presents several
problems: labor-intensive measurements, artificial sense of
precision, and difficulties in converting to verbal description. As
an alternative, a certainty scaling method was developed by
Young et al (1994) in which respondents agree or disagree with
a statement and then rate the strength of their opinion from 1 to
5. Responses are then converted to numerical values ranging
from 1 to 10. Young et al's (1994) study both forms of the OSFI
were administered to 162 college students on the first day of 2-
week outdoor adventure programs. Half of subjects completed
the continuum version first, then the certainty-scaled OSFI; the
other half did the opposite. With either scaling method, the
OSFI and its social-fears and physical-fears subscales were
reliable as measured by Cronbach's alpha. The order of
administration had no effect on scores. The relationships of the
two instruments' overall and subscale scores were strong.

Overall rating: 6.5/10.

Participants The PEIPQ-B has over 60-items, developed over 10 years, 1. James Neill
Evaluation of based on extensive work by Prof. Herbert Marsh in evaluating 2. Garry Richards
Instructor and student perceptions of educational and teaching quality in higher
Program Quality education settings. Modified by Garry Richards, former Download the PEIPQ
(PEIPQ) Executive Director of Outward Bound Australia, and used instrument.
extensively over a period of 10 years for evaluating participant
perceptions of course quality, course outcomes, instructor skills
and relations with participants, course length, difficulty, etc. No
published psychometrics available. There is a database of over
3000 responses to Outward Bound Australia programs.

Overall rating: 7/10.

Physical Self- Self-report tool which efficiently measures 6 dimensions of 1. Garry Richards,
concept Scale physical self-concept. The instrument has been tested on a SELF Center,
(PSCS) large, representative sample in Australia and the factor structure University of Western
holds up well. It has also been used as an outcome measure for Sydney
Outward Bound research in the 1980's by Garry Richards. It
could be an ideal instrument for use in investigating the effects
of physical education, body image and weight loss / fitness. The
PSCS has also been used in a large, comparative study of the
factor structure of three major physical self-concept instruments
in a recent published major journal article. Overall rating: 8/10
Program Twelve-items, easy to use across a wide variety of settings to Download Graduate
Satisfaction assess client's overall satisfaction with a program. Originally paper describing
Assessment Tool designed to assess program satisfaction with ropes challenge development of PSAT.
(PSAT) courses at the Browne Center by graduate student, Jeff Contains the 12 items
Heyliger. Focuses on whether a clients' needs and objectives in the appendix.
were met. Overall rating: 6/10 (not higher because it hasn't
been subjected to full psychometric investigation -- pilot work
completed).
Recreation Designed to "measure the extent to which specific experiences Download:
Experience are desired and expected from leisure activities" (Driver, Brown, - Driver's REP Scales
Preference (REP) & Peterson, 1991: 275). Consists of 42 scales that describe - Sugarman's
Inventory possible desired outcomes of a recreational experience (e.g., instrument based on the
(Driver, 1977, social recognition, general nature experience, being with REP
1983) friends). The scales are grouped into 21 more general recreation
experience preference domains (e.g., achievement, enjoy 1. Deborah Sugarman
nature, similar people). Two core statements for each scale are
provided for use by researchers conducting empirical studies
(e.g., "to show others I can do it," " to be close to nature," "to be
with friends"). Not used widely in OE. Overall rating 6/10.
Resilience Scale A measure of psychological resilience, that is, the capacity to Download:
(RS) withstand life stressors, thrive and make meaning from
challenges. Suggest using a shortened (10- or 15-item) version - Resilience Scale
of Wagnild and Young's (1993) 25-item psychological resilience (.doc) (25 items)
scale. The shorter versions are derived from a factor analysis
reported in Neill & Dias (2001). In the Method of this article, - Resilience Scale
there is also mention of some other resilience scales which may (.doc) (15 items)
be of interest. Appendix A contains the psychometrics of the
final set of 15 resilience items we derived from exploratory - Resilience Scale
factor analysis of data collected using Wagnild and Young's 25- (.doc) (10 items)
item scale. The Wagnild and Young study is difficult to get
your hands on - try interlibrary loans. For more information and 1. Official Resilience
to obtain permission to use the instrument, see the official Scale website
Resilience Scale website. Also see: What is resilience? Overall
rating: 7/10. 2. James Neill
Review of Measures similar scales to the Life Effectiveness Questionnaire, 1. James Neill
Personal but also includes Cooperative Teamwork, Locus of Control and
Effectiveness & a Control Scale. See paper. Overall rating: 7/10.
Locus of Control
(ROPELOC)
Rosenberg Self- Rosenberg's (1965) 10-item general measure of self-esteem is Rosenberg Self-Esteem
esteem Scale the most widely used in self-esteem research over the past 30 Scale & Scoring
(RSE) years. It has also been adapted for use in many different studies,
 e.g., for Marsh's General Self scale as part of his multi-
dimensional self-concept questionnaires. Rating: 8.5/10.
Search Institute's This 156-item survey measures the 40 developmental assets for Search Institute
Profiles of youth, plus 8 thriving indicators, 5 developmental deficits, and
Student Life: 24 risk-taking behaviors. The instrument must be purchased
Attitudes & from the publishers. Note that the instrument is more designed
Behaviors (A&B) for assessing and mapping assets for diagnostic/feedback
purposes as opposed to measuring change in personal/social
constructs. Overall rating: 6.5/10.
Self-Description Multi-dimensional self-concept instrument which has been Self-Concept
Questionnaire extensively psychometrically validated. 3 versions - I (primary Enhancement &
(SDQ) school), II (secondary), III (adults). 8-12 self-concept scales. Learning Facilitation
Short versions available. Has been used in moderate amount of (SELF) Centre
OE research. It's sensitivity for analysis of personal
development change, however, may not be high. Overall 1. Herbert Marsh
rating: 8/10.
Self-Efficacy Self-efficacy refers to an individual's believes about his/her Information on Self-
(SE) agency or capacity to successful perform various tasks. efficacy
Substantial research has suggested that alterations in self-
efficacy beliefs are closely associated with changes in actual 1. Frank Pajares
behavior/competence. Whilst, a 10-item General Self-Efficacy
Scale (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1993) measure is available,
Bandura strongly recommends development of more specific
self-efficacy measures, e.g., health-specific self-efficacy,
exercise self-efficacy, teacher self-efficacy, and so on. Overall
rating: 8/10.
Self-Perception This is one of the better known self-concept scales and one of 1. Susan Harter
Profiles for the few designed specifically for adolescents. The manual
Adolescents available for $20 and contains the scale which you are copy for
(SPPA) (Harter, your own use. Send any orders direct to Susan Harter.
1988) The Harter SPPA was recently used in Garst, B., Scheider, I., &
Baker, D. (2001). Outdoor adventure program participation
impacts on adolescent self-perception. Journal of Experiential
Education, 24(1), 41-49. Kara Sammet has also been using the
scale in her evaluation of the impacts of programs with
adolescents girls. Overall rating: ?/10.
Social Support Currently there is no well developed measure of the extent to 1. James Neill
(SS) which group members socially support one another during
outdoor and experiential education programs. However, some
initial steps and commentary about the need for such as
instrument and results from the use of four trial questions (on
instructor, group, most supportive person and least supportive
person) are reported in a recent article by Neill and Dias (2001).
Students Caring Measures the extent to which students perceived that they cared 1. John Quay
For Each Other for others and were cared for by others during a program. Still 2. Bettina Moonen
(SCFEO) (Quay, in development, but holds promise as an initial measure of this
1999) emerging area of interest for outdoor education research.
Overall rating: 5/10.
Team Simon Priest used the TDI as the basis for his numerous studies 1. Simon Priest
Development on Corporate Adventure Training on teamwork outcomes. For
Index (TDI) more information about these studies see Priest's research
(Priest) summaries at
 http://members.tscnet.com/pages/experien/research.html
Tennessee Self- The TSCS was a popular, multidimensional self-concept 1. James Neill
Concept Scale measure used in outdoor education and the social sciences more
(TSCS) (Fitts, generally during the mid-1960's through to the mid-1980's but
1965) has since dropped off in popularity following reports (e.g.,
Marsh & Richards, 1988) of problems with its psychometrical
structure. A large amount of research using the TSCS in
outdoor education was reviewing by Ewert's 1983 paper on
adventure education self-concept outcomes, however no critical
perspective on the instrument has been published within outdoor
education. Currently it is not generally used or recommended as
an outcome measure. Overall rating: 4/10.
Youth Outcomes The Youth Outcome Questionnaire (Y-OQ) and the Self Report 1. Keith Russell
Questionnaire Youth-Outcome Questionnaire (SR Y-OQ) can be used to track
(Y-OQ) therapeutic progress of clients (Burlingame, 1995). The Y-OQ is
a parent reported measure of a wide range of behaviors,
situations, and moods which commonly apply to troubled
teenagers, whereas the SR Y-OQ is the adolescent self-report
version. Six content areas are assessed by the Y-OQ and SR Y-
OQ: Intrapersonal Distress, Somatic, Interpersonal Relations,
Critical Items, Social Problems, Behavioral Dysfunction. The
instrument must be purchased from the publishers. Overall
rating: 8/10. More information.