Locus de controlo na saúde: conceito e validação duma escala em adolescentes com diabetes tipo 1

J. Paulo Almeida^{* 1} & M.G. Pereira²

¹ Hospital de S. João, Departamento de Pediatria, Porto

² Universidade do Minho, Departamento de Psicologia, Braga

 

 

Resumo: O presente estudo descreve a adaptação para uma amostra portuguesa da Escala de Locus de Controlo da Saúde (Parcel & Meyer, 1978). Esta escala tem como objectivo medir especificamente as crenças das crianças e adolescentes relativas à saúde/doença. A escala composta por 20 itens foi submetida a uma análise das suas propriedades psicométricas seguindo uma metodologia semelhante aos autores originais para efeitos de comparação. A amostra no nosso estudo é composta por 175 adolescentes do Serviço de Endocrinologia do Hospital S. João, no Porto. A versão portuguesa aponta para uma composição com 14 itens organizados em duas componentes e 3 sub escalas. A primeira componente na dimensão externalidade do Locus de Controlo agrupa itens referentes à escala “Outros Significativos” (pais, professores) e à escala “Outros Poderosos”, esta englobando itens referentes explicitamente ao médico e enfermeiro como determinantes no controlo da saúde. A segunda dimensão refere-se ao Locus de Controlo Interno pelo que foi mantido o mesmo nome dos autores originais. A fidelidade da versão portuguesa apresenta um alfa global de .64. Torna-se importante testar esta escala noutras amostras bem como em patologias diferentes.

Palavras chave: Adolescentes, Diabetes, Locus de controle.

 

Health locus of control scale: construct and validation with an adolescent population with type 1 diabetes

Abstract: This study describes the adaptation of the Locus of Control Scale (Parcel & Meyer, 1978) in a Portuguese sample. This scale measures health beliefs related to health and disease in children and adolescents. The scale composed of 20 items was subjected to an analysis of its psychometric properties following a similar methodology to the original authors for the purpose of comparison. The sample in our study is composed by 175 adolescents from the Endocrinology Service in S. John’s Hospital in Porto. The Portuguese version shows a composition of 14 itens organized in two dimensions and three subscales. The first component in the external dimension of locus of control includes the items that refer to “Significant Others” (parents and teachers) and the scale “Powerful Others”, including items that refer clearly to physicians and nurses as determinants in health control. The second dimension refers to internal locus of control and for that reason we maintained the same name as its original authors. Scale fidelity shows an alpha of .64. It is important to test this scale in other samples with different pathologies.

Key words: Adolescents, Diabetes, Locus of control.

 

 

Texto completo disponível apenas em PDF.

Full text only available in PDF format.

 

 

Referências

Abusabha, R., & Achterberg, C. (1997). Review of self-efficacy and locus of control for nutrition and health related behaviour. Journal of American Diabetic Association, 97(10), 11221132.

        [ Links ]

Affleck, G., Tennen, H., Pfeiffer, C., & Fifield, J. (1987). Appraisals of Control and predicatability in adapting to a chronic disease. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(2), 273-279.

Almeida, L., & Freira, T. (2000). Metodologia da investigação em psicologia e educação. Braga: Psiquilibrios.

Antonovsky, A. (1987). Unraveling the mystery of health. S. Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Cauce, A.M., Hannan, K., & Sargeant, M. (1992). Life stress, social support, and locus of control during early adolescence: Interactive effects. American Journal of Community Psychology, 20(6), 787-797.

Chubb,N.H., Fertman, C.I., & Ross, J.L. (1997). Adolescent Self estem and locus of control: A longitudinal study of gender and age differences. Adolescence, 32, 113-129.

Cloninger, S. (1999). Teorias da Personalidade. S. Paulo: Martins Fontes Ed.

Fontoura M., Tsou, R.M., Carvalho, J., Guerreiro, C., & Santos, N.T. (1997). Pediatric and adolescent diabetes mellitus: Experience of the pediatric endocrinology unit – Hospital S. João – Porto. Diabetes Nutrition & Metabolism, 10, 1.

Furnham, A., & Steele, H. (1993). Measuring locus of control: A critique of general, children’s health and work related locus of control questionnaires. British Journal of Psycholgy, 84, 443-479.

Hjelle, L.A., & Ziegler, D.J. (1992). Personality Theories. Basic Assumptions, Research and Applications. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Horne J., & Weinman J. (1996). Predicting treatment adherence: An overview of theoretical models. In Mark Conner and Paul Norman (Eds.), Predicting Health Behaviour. Open University Press, Philadelphia, USA.

Kulas, H. (1996). Locus of Control in Adolescence: A longitudinal study. Adolescence, 31, 721-729.

Levenson, H. (1974). Activism and powerful others: Distinctions within the concept of internal-external control. Journal of Personality Assessment, 38, 377-383.

Marshall, G.N. (1991). Multidimensional Analysis of internal health locus of control beliefs: Separating the wheat fro the chaff? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(3), 483-491.

Norwicki, S., & Strickland, B.R. (1973). A locus of control scale for children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 40, 148-155.

O’Brian, R.W. Bush, P.J., & Parcel, J.S. (1989). Stability in a measure of children’s health locus of control. Journal of School Health, 59(4), 161-164.

Parcel, G.S., & Meyer, M.D. (1978). Development of an instrument to measure children’s health locus of control. Health Education Monographs, 6, 149-159.

Peterson, C., Selingman, M.E., Vaillant, G.E. (1988). Pessimistic Explanatory stile is a risk factor for physical illness: A thirty five year longitudinal study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55(1), 23-27.

Ribeiro, J.L. (1994). Reconstrução de uma escala de locus de controlo na saúde. Psiquiatria Clínica, 15(4), 207-214.

Rotter, J.B. (1990). Internal versus external control of reinforcement: A case history of a Variable. American Psychologist, 45, 489-493.

Strickland, B.R. (1989). Internal external control Expectancies: From Contingency to creativity: American Psychologist, 44, 1-12.

Walston, K.A. (1991).The importance of placing measures of health locus of control in a heoretical context. Health Education Research: Theory and Practice, 6, 251-252.

Walston, K.A. (1992). Hocus-Pocus, the focus isn’t strictly on locus: Rotter’s social learning theory modified for health. Cognitive Theory and Research, 16(2), 183-199.

 

 

^* Contactar para E-mail: paulo.almeida@hsjoao.min-sau.pt

 

Recebido em 21 de Abril de 2006 / aceite em 2 de Setembro de 2006