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Towards Measuring Community Understanding of Traumatic Brain Injury: The Structure and Potential Utility of the Head Injury Knowledge Scale

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2015

Matt Thomas  and
Emily Jobse
Matt Thomas*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Australia
Emily Jobse
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Dr Matt Thomas, School of Psychology, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst NSW 2795, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Background and aims: International research has shown the public hold various misconceptions about traumatic brain injury (TBI). Yet, relatively little has been done towards developing appropriate measures of public knowledge of TBI. The Head Injury Knowledge Scale (HIKS, Ono, Ownsworth, & Walters, 2011) is a newly developed measure of misconceptions and expectations about the effects of TBI. Additional investigation of its psychometric properties appeared warranted. The aims of this further preliminary study were to examine the factor structure of the HIKS and the relationship between psychosocial variables and factor scores.

Method: A convenience sample comprising 167 adults, of whom 65% were females, responded to an online survey including the HIKS. The two-factor HIKS structure was tested using confirmatory factor analyses and the relationships between psychosocial variables and the HIKS factors were investigated.

Results: A good fit was found for the structure of the HIKS. All items loaded adequately onto the HIKS Over-generalisation and Minimisation factors and their internal consistencies were good. Significant differences between gender groups and for level of education were observed on the HIKS Over-generalisation scale, suggesting various groups in the community may have differing levels of knowledge of TBI.

Conclusion: This study confirmed the robustness of the HIKS factor structure. The HIKS is likely to be an important measure of community understanding of TBI in future research.

Keywords

Head Injury Knowledge Scaleconfirmatory factor analysispsychometric propertiesattributionsmisconceptions about brain injury
Type
Articles
Information
Brain Impairment , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , September 2015 , pp. 104 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment 2015 

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