Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science (JCBS)
Volume 14, October 2019, Pages 20-28
Authors
David T. Gillanders, Estelle Barker
Abstract
Background
Diabetes is a condition that requires substantial behavioural management and psychological adjustment. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has shown promise as an effective intervention for people with diabetes. Measures of acceptance in diabetes have been developed, though they are long, which discourages their use in routine clinical work and increases item burden in research studies. In addition, different scales have been developed for children and adults, making it difficult to compare diabetes acceptance across the lifespan. This study aimed to develop a short form of the Diabetes Acceptance and Action Scale that would be suitable for administration across all ages.
Method
People with diabetes were recruited via social media, support organisations and charities as well as clinical services. They completed an online survey measuring demographic and clinical data, the Diabetes Acceptance & Action Scale, Problems in Diabetes Short Form, Self-Care Inventory Revised, Brief Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire, Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire and Engaged Living Scale.
Results
Five hundred and thirty-one participants with diabetes responded to the online survey. The sample was 78% British, and 67% female. Seventy percent of the sample had Type 1 diabetes and 30% had Type 2. The scale was successfully reduced to a nine item, one factor scale, with excellent model fit. Cronbach's α was 0.9 and the scale correlated very highly with the original DAAS (r = 0.92, p < .0001). Initial convergent validity was established through moderate to strong correlations with diabetes related distress (r = −0.76, p < .0001) and diabetes self-care (r = 0.33, p < .0001). Initial concurrent validity was established through strong correlations with Experiential Avoidance (r = −0.64, p < .0001), Cognitive Fusion (r = −0.65, p < .0001) and Engaged Living (r = 0.58, p < .0001).
Conclusion
The DAAS-R is a brief scale, with equivalent psychometric properties to the original 42-item scale. Its brevity should give it greater utility in both clinical and research settings.