Health Locus of Control Scale for adults: a validation study

Journal title PSICOLOGIA DELLA SALUTE
Author/s Anna Rosa Donizzetti, Giovanna Petrillo
Publishing Year 2015 Issue 2015/3
Language Italian Pages 17 P. 126-142 File size 220 KB
DOI 10.3280/PDS2015-003007
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It is well-known in health psychology literature, that health locus of control is an important issue for understanding and predicting health behaviors, but the psychometric properties of the existing scales are not fully established. The aim of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the Health Locus of control Scale (HLCS) for adolescents by Donizzetti and Petrillo (2011), considering an adults population. 922 participants, equally distributed by gender (50.2% male), with a mean age of 52.2 years (SD = 20.20) were involved in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis highlighted a three-dimensional structure. In addition, correlational analyses have demonstrated the convergent and discriminant validity. The scale is invariant across gender. The adult version of HLCS consists of 13 items and resulted a valuable and reliable tool. Easy to administer, it can be used for purposes of research and intervention for the detection of beliefs about control of physical health in adult populations.

Keywords: Health locus of control; HLCS; Scale validation; Adults.

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Anna Rosa Donizzetti, Giovanna Petrillo, Validazione della versione per adulti della Health Locus of Control Scale (HLCS) in "PSICOLOGIA DELLA SALUTE" 3/2015, pp 126-142, DOI: 10.3280/PDS2015-003007