English Summaries (05/2016)
Towards measuring comprehensive nature experience
The aim of this study was to develop a new measure for comprehensive nature experience (CNE) which consists of emotions, self-experience and characteristics of nature. The structure, reliability and the structural, criterion and known group validity of the CNE measure were evaluated. The main data consisted of Finnish adults who visited a health portal (n = 485) or participated in a nature-based intervention (n = 49). In order to evaluate the validity of the CNE measure, secondary data was collected among university students (n = 347). Factor analysis was used to evaluate the structure of CNE. The reliability of CNE was assessed with Cronbach’s alphas. Structural and criterion validity were evaluated with Pearson correlation coefficients. In order to assess known group validity, the dimensions of CNE were compared with analysis of variance among three groups of nature experience identified in an earlier quantitative study (i.e., restoration, health experiences and ambivalent experiences). The CNE measure consisted of four dimensions (i.e., connectedness with nature, feelings of impasse, feelings of space and feelings of being accepted), which mostly showed good reliability. Moreover, structural, criterion and known group validity turned out to be moderate.
Keywords: comprehensive nature experience, the CNE measure, connectedness with nature, feelings of impasse, feelings of space, feelings of being accepted
The psychometric structure of the Finnish MAAS measure and associations with personality and well-being
This study examines the psychometric structure of the Finnish Mindful Attention Awareness Scale. In addition, the associations of mindful attention, measured by MAAS, with self-rated personality traits, depressive symptoms, satisfaction with life and health-related quality of life are explored. The participants were mostly middle-aged clients in a preventive vocationally oriented medical rehabilitation process (ASLAK rehabilitation) who, in addition to MAAS, rated personality traits with the Kop questionnaire, depressive symptoms with the DEPS screening test, satisfaction with life with the SWLS questionnaire and health-related quality of life with the RAND-36 questionnaire. The results were mostly as expected: in exploratory factor analysis the psychometric structure of MAAS is unidimensional and, measured with Cronbach’s alpha, internally consistent. Mindful awareness correlated with all the big five traits and both depressive symptoms and satisfaction with life. The associations between mindful awareness and depressive symptoms and satisfaction with life, respectively, remained significant even when the big five personality traits were controlled in regression analysis. In the follow-up, mindful awareness predicted change in health-related quality of life in regression analysis. The Finnish MAAS seems to function like the original English version and other translations, but proper validity studies with more variable methods and larger and more representative samples are needed.
Keywords: Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, mindfulness, personality traits, well-being
The changes in the relationships of intimately violent men who participated in the Vaihtoehto väkivallalle treatment group
This study focuses on Vaihtoehto väkivallalle, a treatment group for intimately violent men conducted in Jyväskylä, Finland. Our aim was to examine the changes that occurred in the relationships of the men who participated in the group. In addition, we evaluated the effectiveness of the treatment group. The data of our study consisted of pre-, post- and two-year follow-up interviews of the men’s spouses/ex-spouses. We analyzed the data applying qualitative content analysis. We focused on the change in different types of violence, state of the relationship, position of the spouse in the relationship and the spouse’s feelings of safety. Based on the pre- and post-interviews we formulated five categories that describe the changes in the relationships: 1) good situation overall, physical violence has ended, 2) situation improved, physical violence has ended, 3) situation improved, physical violence has decreased, 4) significant problems, physical violence has ended and 5) significant problems, physical violence has decreased. We classified the first three categories (n = 11, 48 % of the cases) as overall successful and the last two categories as partially successful (n = 12, 52 % of the cases). According to the two-year follow-up interviews the positive changes achieved by the end of the treatment group lasted only in some of the cases. In addition, significant problems that were present at the end of the group usually continued. We argue that the Vaihtoehto väkivallalle treatment was a successful intervention. Our results also support the notion that when studying intimate partner violence, it is essential to consider the situation of the couple in a multidimensional and holistic manner.
Keywords: Vaihtoehto väkivallalle, intimate partner violence, treatment group for intimately violent men, effectiveness study, intimate relationship, qualitative content analysis