Fat phobia scale revisited: the short form.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a shortened form of the original 50-item fat phobia scale. METHOD: The first factor from the original fat phobia scale-undisciplined, inactive and unappealing-was identified as a potential short form of the scale. A new sample of 255 people completed the original 50-item scale. The reliability of a shortened 14-item version of the scale was tested and compared to that of the full scale using both the new sample and the original sample of 1135 study participants. RESULTS: The fat phobia scale-short form demonstrated excellent reliability in both samples and was strongly correlated with the 50-item scale. Mean and 90th percentile scores are given for both the long and short versions of the scale. CONCLUSION: The shortened fat phobia scale is expected to increase the utility of the measure in a diverse array of research and clinical settings. Future research should focus on developing scale norms for the general population and conducting research on fat phobia in males and among different ethnic groups.

In the eye of the beholder: risk and protective factors in rural American Indian and Caucasian adolescents.

This study examines how relations between risk and protective factors and psychopathology vary by ethnic group, gender, and informant. Data were collected from Caucasian and American Indian adolescents, and their teachers. Results indicate a need for interventions that reduce risk, increase protective factors, and bring about greater convergence in the perceptions of teachers and youth.

Better care for the dying. Hawaii healthcare system develops a manual for end-of-life care.

In early 1996, as it became clear that Americans were becoming increasingly concerned about end-of-life care, the leaders of St. Francis Healthcare System (SFHS), Honolulu, convened a meeting at which local people--community and parish representatives as well as healthcare professionals--discussed the matter. The meeting's participants identified 10 issues as essential in end-of-life care: decision making, pain management and comfort care, pastoral and spiritual care, psychosocial care, hospice and home care, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, futility, withholding and withdrawing treatment, artificial nutrition and hydration, physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. The participants then divided themselves into 10 teams, each of which spent six months studying one of the identified essential issues. In each case, the team reviewed the relevant SFHS policies and procedures and compared them with national standards. The team also interviewed staff members about the policies and procedures, comparing the written versions with actual practices. Each team then wrote a chapter on its assigned issue, after which a core committee wove the chapters into an end-of-life care manual for SFHS. The manual was published in June 1997. The system's leaders currently use the manual to educate staff members in good end-of-life care.

Teacher, parent, and youth report of problem behaviors among rural American Indian and Caucasian adolescents.

Previous research on the mental health status of American Indian youth has documented rates of pathology that are higher than the rates for Caucasian youth. However, much of this previous research has compared rural American Indians to urban Caucasians. The present study is a comparison of American Indian and Caucasian youth living on or near a rural reservation. Results suggest that although American Indian youth have higher levels than Caucasian youth of certain problem behaviors, group differences are much less general and pronounced than previous research has documented. Analyses also revealed teachers' perceptions of youth were in some cases quite different than parents' perceptions of youth and youth's perceptions of themselves.

Fat phobia: measuring, understanding, and changing anti-fat attitudes.

We examined fat phobia, defined as a pathological fear of fatness, by constructing the Fat Phobia Scale, determining its reliability and validity, examining correlates of fat phobia, and using a treatment approach designed to decrease fat phobia. Study 1 describes the development of the Fat Phobia Scale, a 50-item, modified 5-point semantic differential scale. Subjects (974 females and 117 males) completed the scale; factor analysis yielded six factors. Respondents who are average weight, female, younger, have more than a high school education, or are nonmedical professionals are more likely to have fat phobic attitudes. Study 2 examines fat phobic attitudes of women (N = 40) who had negative feelings about their bodies. Subjects completed the Fat Phobia Scale before and after a treatment approach designed to reduce their feelings of responsibility for fatness. Total scores on the Fat Phobia Scale and scores on all six factors decreased significantly, indicating a decrease in fat phobia.