An evaluation of the feedback report for the preventive resources inventory

Date

2019-09-18

Authors

Murphy, Susan Laura

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Abstract

Research on how individuals cope with stress has spanned numerous academic and scientific disciplines, including the fields of counseling and psychology. Investigations have more recently focused on preventive coping, or the coping strategies used by individuals to manage existing stressors and prepare for future demands. The Preventive Resource Inventory (PRI) was developed to assess coping resources for mitigating or preventing stress, rather than withstanding it. The PRI was recently revised to reflect more current theoretical perspectives in stress and coping research, including the influence of positive psychology. This revision process involved developing and testing new items and later conducting a factor analysis to create an updated measure. The present study used the updated version of the PRI to assess the utility of a feedback report for PRI users. This study also examined how individuals understand preventive coping in the context of their own personal coping efforts. Qualitative methodologies used in this study drew on principles and procedures of phenomenology.

A total of 25 graduate students and 26 undergraduate students taking a course in the College Education participated in the study, completing short answer questionnaires intended to address the study’s research questions. 11 undergraduate students also participated in follow-up interviews with me to provide more depth and clarify their responses. The short answer questionnaires and interview transcripts of 27 participants (27 short answer questionnaires and 11 transcripts) were analyzed before data saturation was achieved. Based on analyses of these data, I identified specific aspects of both the report and the overall feedback process that students found to helpful and unhelpful in augmenting their understanding of their results. I was also able to identify several recommendations for improving the PRI feedback report in the future. Regarding participants’ understanding of preventive coping, I used quantitative data from the short-answer questionnaires to identify and further inquire about specific preventive coping resources (i.e., Maintaining Perspective, Scanning, and Self-Acceptance) about which participants demonstrated discrepancies in their understanding and comprehension. Analyses also demonstrated ways in which participants contextualized their personal coping efforts, including the development of their coping efforts through dispositional and/or skill-based pathways.

Description

LCSH Subject Headings

Citation