Post-traumatic Growth: Longitudinal Study on Battered Women in Close Relationships after Both They and Their Partners Undergo Therapy.

Violence in intimate relationships is a major problem worldwide. Many women, despite having experienced violence from a partner, decide to remain in a relationship with the perpetrator. A special premise for such a decision is that the abusive partner undertakes therapy that serves to build security in the family. An important indicator of dealing with violence is post-traumatic growth (PTG), a concept introduced by Calhoun and Tedeschi (1998) to describe positive changes as a result of traumatic experiences. The purpose of the research was to assess PTG changes in the course of relationships in which the woman had experienced violence from her partner, but both her partner and she had undertaken therapy and changed their behavior (N = 48). The conducted research used a demographic survey and two questionnaires: The Polish version of the Impact Event Scale-Revised (IES-R, Weiss, Marmara prepared by Juczynski and Oginska-Bulik [2009]) examining three dimensions of trauma (intrusion, hyperarousal, and avoidance) and the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory (Tedeschi & Calhoun [2004]; Polish version prepared by Oginska-Bulik & Juczynski [2010]). The studies showed that over a period of one and half years, significant changes in PTG had taken place. Reportedly, changes in self-perception and changes in relating to others have decreased, while appreciation of life increased but spiritual life remained the same. The research also allowed us to distinguish several groups of corelates in changes in individual PTG categories. The studies also indicate that building a close relationship with the person who caused the harm can limit the victim's PTG.

Cut-off points for Polish-language versions of depression screening tools among patients with Type 2 diabetes.

AIMS: Screening tools can help improve the detection of depression in patients with diabetes, yet the psychometric properties of most translations of scales, which are originally published in English, have not been assessed. Thus we studied the screening performance of widely used depression measures. METHOD: We applied the cut-off points of the English-language versions of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); Depression in Diabetes Self-Rating Scale (DDS-RS); Brief Self-Rating Scale of Depression and Anxiety (BS-RSDA); and Problematic Areas in Diabetes Survey (PAID), all of which were used to assess diabetes-specific distress in a sample of 101 patients with Type 2 diabetes. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) were used to diagnose depression. RESULTS: When the English cut-off points were used, the tools had varied values of both sensitivity and specificity. When the best cut-off points were used, all measures had either very good or good sensitivity. Taking into account their length, the HADS and the BS-RSDA seem to be the best among the screening tools. CONCLUSIONS: Effective initial diagnosis of depression in patients with diabetes during a routine medical visit requires the use of screening tools that have adequate cut-off points. The analyses presented in this article show that screening tools should be validated and the cut-off points that are used should be population-specific.

The Staff Attitude to Coercion Scale (SACS) - Polish adaptation. / Kwestionariusz Postaw Personelu Wobec Przymusu (SACS) ­ Polska adaptacja.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to prepare the Polish adaptation of the SACS. The scale is a self-assessment tool designed to measure staff attitudes towards direct coercion of psychiatric wards patients. METHODS: The sample consisted of 120 adults, staff from 7 psychiatric wards. The SACS is a tool created in Norway by Tonje Husum, comprising of 15 items describing psychiatric healthcare professionals attitudes towards direct coercion. The validation procedure incorporated three basic methods to be applied in the reliability analysis - the comparison of double tests with the same method, the analysis of statistical properties of test items as well as analysis of the relation of test items and subscales with the general test result. RESULTS: After a "think aloud" type pilot study and a language validation, the internal consistency was assessed. The Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.57 to 0.81 in the subscales, and it was 0.82 for the total score. The best solution obtained in exploratory factor analysis was a three-factor model, almost identical to the original one, confirming the division into three subscales: coercion as offending (critical attitude), as care and security (pragmatic attitude) and as treatment (positive attitude). CONCLUSIONS: The psychometric characteristics of the Polish adaptation of the SACS are similar to those reported in the original version. The results allow to recommend the method for scientific research. However, further analyses are necessary to assess validity and discriminative power in larger settings.

Psychometric validation of Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale in the Polish population.

BACKGROUND: Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) is one of the most popular psychological scales used for diagnosing odontophobia worldwide. Despite being used by Polish researchers, it has never been validated in the Polish population. Also, there are no similar tools that could be used by dentists for screening. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to validate and present the psychometric properties of the Dental Anxiety Scale adapted to Polish. The scale is a self-assessment tool designed to measure odontophobia and dental anxiety. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The sample consisted of 162 adults. The adaptation to Polish of the DAS scale included a back-translation and a think-aloud study. The validation procedure incorporated 3 basic methods to be applied in the reliability analysis - the test-retest method, the statistical properties analysis of test items as well as a factor analysis. The general result of the responders was also compared to the anxiety-trait STAI scale and the neuroticism scale form IPIP-BMF-20. RESULTS: The Cronbach's α was 0.9. The solution obtained in the exploratory factor analysis was a one-factor model, explaining 76.24% of the variance of responses. The test-retest gave a strong correlation (rho = 0.69, p < 0.001). The correlations between the DAS score, the anxiety-trait STAI score and the neuroticism scale form IPIP-BMF-20 were moderate, as expected. The percent of responders with odontophobia and intense dental anxiety was almost similar to the results of other studies. CONCLUSIONS: The psychometric characteristics of the Polish adaptation of the DAS scale are similar to those reported in the original version. The results allow us to recommend the method for scientific research and patient screening. However, further analyses are necessary to assess if the scores indicating odontophobia and dental anxiety are similar in Poland and in the USA.

Validation of the Polish version of WHO-5 as a screening instrument for depression in adults with diabetes.

AIMS: The aim of this study was to validate and report the factorial analysis of the World Health Organization's 5-item Well-being Index (WHO-5) among outpatients with type 2 diabetes. We investigated the psychometric properties of the WHO-5 and its suitability for identifying potential depressive symptoms in Polish adults with diabetes. METHODS: Participants were randomly chosen among Polish diabetes outpatients and invited to participate in the cross-sectional study (N = 216). Participants completed the Polish version of the WHO-5, Problem Areas in Diabetes Scale and Patient Health Questionnaire. RESULTS: Factor analyses identified the one-factor structure of the Polish version of the WHO-5. The internal consistency of the Polish version of the WHO-5 is satisfying. With regard to convergent validity, there were significant negative associations between the WHO-5 and PAID, the PHQ-9, HbA1c and the amount of medical complications. The AUC indicates that the WHO-5 is an effective measure for identifying depressive symptoms. The optimal cut off values of ≤12 yielded the best sensitivity/specificity trade-off for identifying depression among people with diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: The Polish version of the WHO-5 is a reliable, valid outcome measure for outpatients with type 2 diabetes and can be a useful instrument for screening for depression in people with diabetes.