3 research outputs found
The Demographic Psychosocial Inventory: A New Instrument to Measure Risk Factors for Adjustment Problems Among Immigrants
Objective-The purpose of this study
was to develop and test the Demographic
Psychosocial Inventory
(DPSI), a self-report questionnaire that
assesses demographic and background
characteristics of immigrants,
and psychosocial risk factors of demoralization.
Method-Based on a review of instruments
used to study immigrants, and
researchers' experience in this area, an
85-item questionnaire was developed
that includes 10 scales and three general
indices. Subjects are asked to indicate
their level of satisfaction with
various aspects of their lives, their reasons
for immigration, and problems
they had encountered since they immigrated.
Results-DPSI (Demographic Psychological
Inventory) was tested on 1,200
adult immigrants who came to Israel
from the former USSR since 1989. The
reliability of the scales and general indices
was generally high as measured
by Cronbaeh's Alpha. For one general
index and two scales it was above .78,
for one general index and two scales it
was between .60 and .73, for one general
index and two scales between.41
and .55, and for one scale .23. The general
indices were highly correlated
with the Psychiatric Epidemiology
Research Interview Demoralization
Scale (PERI-D) and the Brief Symptom
Inventory (BSI). The results suggest
that the greatest risk factors of demoralization
are a greater number of distress
sources, difficulty in dealing with conflict, greater discrepancy between
actual difficulties encountered and
those expected, and more reasons for
immigration. The single most important
variable in predicting a demoralization
case was the number of distress
sources. We developed DPSI cutting
points for caseness based on comparisons
to BSI and PERI-D. For the BSI,
DPSI cutting points are .44 for males,
and .48 for females. These cutting
points recognize about 61% of those
who are cases according to BSI, and
about 72% of those who are not cases
according to BSI. For the PERI-D, DPSI
cutting points for caseness are .42 for
males and .44 for females. These cutting
points recognize about 63% of
those who are demoralized according
to PERI-D and about 68% of those who
are not demoralized according to
PERI-D. DPSI tends to recognize
slightly more cases as being at risk of
demoralization than those who are
demoralized according to PERI-D, and
slightly less than those identified as
cases according to BSI.
Conclusions-DPSI is a promising instrument
for gathering demographic
and background characteristics of immigrants,
and for studying psychosocial
risk factors for development of
demoralization. DPSI is available in
English, Hebrew, and Russian