Psychological Measure Help Please!

nell123

Hi all.

I am currently carrying out a research project that involves the use of a measure called the Child and Adult Medical Procedure Interaction Scale. (CAMPIS) and in particular the short form of this. I need some advice, as the author of this measure isn't responding to emails and I am running out of time to score my data. So basically this is my problem. I have divided each of my procedures into ten second intervals. So for example, within a 390 second procedure, I have 39 intervals. Within each of those intervals I code the presence of certain behaviours. For example distress behaviours (crying). So at the end of the procedure I might find I have 26 distress behaviours throughout the procedure.
The CAMPIS-SF (short form) then further splits this into smaller grouping variables and a smaller rating scale.
Example.

1=None or One
2=Minimal or few
3=Moderate or Adequate
4=Substantial or Considerable
5=Maximum or nearly continuous

It is obviously easy to calculate what will be classed as a 1 or a 5 rating. But I am a bit unsure about the best way to calculate what constitutes a 2, 3, or 4 rating. What I considered doing was taking 1 from the total number of intervals (as 1 can only be a maximum of 1) and dividing the remainder by four to get scoring intervals. So for example in the case of a procedure with 39 intervals. 39-1=38. 38/4= 9.5. So 2-10 is 2(minimal or few) 11-20 is 3(moderate or adequate) 21-30 is 4(substantial or considerable) and 31-39 is 5(maximum or continuous).
My biggest problem with this is that to me 31 or 32 would not be continuous or maximum.

I'm sure there is a much better mathematical way to figure this out, perhaps using percentages or something. But unfortunately I just can't seem to see it at the moment. Probably because I have been staring at it for too long!!
I would greatly appreciate any advice from anyone who might have used the measure previously or who might just be a bit of a maths head!
Thanks in advance,
Nell

JuliusCaesar

Have you tried phoning the author/his university dept? Could be on extended leave or whatever, but they might forward any emails that you send to the admin person.

Has anyone else used this measure and how did they score it? Look at the literature.

nell123

Hi, thanks yes he emailed me back finally and basically said that it is up to myself how I score it. He himself has never used the Short Form only to show that you can use the CAMPIS on a scale rating. So that leaves me kind of back where I started. I decided to just use my best judgement and will discuss it with my supervisor on Tuesday when I meet her. Thanks anyway. Most of the other literature has used the CAMPIS or the CAMPIS-R. I haven't found anything yet with a detailed account of how they scored the CAMPIS-SF.

Thanks anyway, I think I'm on my own with this one!