Validation of the Croatian Version of the Sense of Coherence 29-Item Scale in Croatian Nurses

Results of exploratory factor analysis (extraction method: principal component analysis) in the validation study of the Sense of Coherence 29-item scale among Croatian nurses (n=711)_

Component	Initial Eigenvalues			Extraction sums of squared loadings
	Total	% of variance	Cumulative %	Total	% of variance	Cumulative %
1	7.453	25.700	25.700	7.453	25.700	25.700
2	2.396	8.262	33.962	2.396	8.262	33.962
3	1.693	5.839	39.801	1.693	5.839	39.801
4	1.236	4.262	44.063	1.236	4.262	44.063
5	1.143	3.943	48.005	1.143	3.943	48.005
6	0.982	3.388	51.393
7	0.955	3.294	54.687
8	0.935	3.223	57.910
9	0.897	3.092	61.003
10	0.841	2.900	63.903
11	0.811	2.797	66.699
12	0.767	2.646	69.345
13	0.725	2.500	71.846
14	0.700	2.415	74.261
15	0.681	2.349	76.610
16	0.643	2.217	78.827
17	0.623	2.147	80.975
18	0.593	2.046	83.021
19	0.565	1.947	84.968
20	0.547	1.886	86.854
21	0.534	1.842	88.695
22	0.515	1.776	90.471
23	0.471	1.623	92.095
24	0.448	1.546	93.640
25	0.417	1.439	95.079
26	0.389	1.340	96.419
27	0.366	1.261	97.680
28	0.345	1.189	98.869
29	0.328	1.131	100.000

Results of confirmatory factor analysis in validation study of the Sense of Coherence 29-item scale among Croatian nurses (n=711)_

Statistical property	one-factor model	three-factor model
Chi-square	2289.11	1790.13
Degrees of freedom	377	374
p	<0.001	<0.001
CMIN/DF	6.072	4.786
CFI	0.685	0.767
RMSEA	0.084	0.073

Socio-demographic and work-related characteristics of the study participants (n=713)_

Characteristic	Category	N	(%)
Gender	Male	83	11.6
	Female	630	88.4
Age	19–30	247	34.6
	31–40	161	22.6
	41–50	159	22.3
	51–65	145	20.4
Marital status	Married	371	52.0
	Divorced	48	6.7
	Widowed	18	2.5
	Single	186	26.1
	Life partnership	89	12.5
Level of education	High school education	429	60.2
	Bachelor of nursing	256	35.9
	Master of nursing	28	3.9
Work department	Internal unit	179	25.3
	Surgery unit	157	22.2
	Operating room	33	4.7
	Intensive care unit	73	10.3
	Gynaecology unit	52	7.3
	Polyclinical unit	23	3.2
	Oncology and haematology unit	58	8.2
	Dermatology unit	13	1.8
	Emergency unit	27	3.8
	Ophthalmology unit	28	4.0
	Psychiatry unit	34	4.8
	Paediatrics unit	31	4.4
Length of service	Less than 1 year	23	3.2
	1–19 years	391	54.8
	20 or more years	299	41.9

Factor loadings greater than 0_200 in the validation study of the Sense of Coherence 29-item scale among Croatian nurses (n=711)_

Component	Component loads
	1st	2t	3t	4st	5st
Item_1	0.443	0.363
Item_2	0.342		0.320		−0.325
Item_3	0.352	0.521	0.262		0.257
Item_4	0.277		0.626	−0.340
Item_5	0.483	0.277			−0.416
Item_6	0.468		0.392		−0.394
Item_7	0.305		0.600	−0.290
Item_8	0.547	0.241	−0.301	−0.236	−0.216
Item_9	0.565	0.404		−0.306
Item_10	0.399	0.246		−0.292
Item_11	0.515			0.383
Item_12	0.542		0.203	0.315
Item_13	0.403	0.527			0.266
Item_14	0.512	0.383			−0.362
Item_15	0.520		−0.317
Item_16	0.497				−0.225
Item_17	0.496			0.217
Item_18	0.581	−0.204		0.210
Item_19	0.500	0.317
Item_20	0.589	−0.211			−0.203
Item_21	0.430	0.337		0.219
Item_22	0.355	0.240	−0.210	0.340
Item_23	0.551	−0.352	−0.260
Item_24	0.626	−0.310
Item_25	0.677	−0.355	−0.207
Item_26	0.718	−0.243
Item_27	0.625	−0.266			0.244
Item_28	0.667	−0.404	−0.223
Item_29	0.345	0.310		0.209

Statistical properties of the distribution of values of items of the Sense of Coherence 29-item scale in the validation study of Croatian nurses (n=711)_

Item	x¯{\rm{\bar x}}	SD	Me	IQR
Item_1	4.8	1.6	5	4–6
Item_2	4.6	1.4	5	4–6
Item_3	3.8	1.4	4	3–5
Item_4	3.8	1.7	4	3–5
Item_5	4.8	1.6	5	4–6
Item_6	4.7	1.4	5	4–6
Item_7	4.3	1.5	4	3–5
Item_8	5.6	1.5	6	5–7
Item_9	5.0	1.7	5	4–6
Item_10	4.8	1.7	5	4–6
Item_11	4.6	1.4	6	5–7
Item_12	5.2	1.4	5	4–6
Item_13	3.8	1.5	4	3–5
Item_14	4.5	1.8	5	3–6
Item_15	5.6	1.5	6	5–7
Item_16	5.0	1.7	5	4–7
Item_17	4.9	1.7	5	4–6
Item_18	5.8	1.5	6	5–7
Item_19	4.4	1.4	5	3–6
Item_20	5.1	1.4	5	4–6
Item_21	5.0	1.7	5	4–6
Item_22	4.6	1.4	5	4–6
Item_23	3.8	1.4	4	3–5
Item_24	3.8	1.7	4	3–5
Item_25	4.8	1.6	5	4–6
Item_26	4.7	1.4	5	4–6
Item_27	4.3	1.5	4	3–5
Item_28	5.6	1.5	6	5–7
Item_29	5.0	1.7	5	4–6

Sense of Coherence 29-item instrument: items, their placement within three dimensions, and scoring (1)_

Item no	Question*	Dimension	Scoring
Item_1	When you talk to people, do you have the feeling that they don’t understand you?	C	R
Item_2	Think of the people with whom you come into contact daily, aside from the ones to whom you feel closest. How well do you know most of them?	C	O
Item_3	Has it happened in the past that you were surprised by the behaviour of people whom you thought you knew well?	C	R
Item_4	In the past ten years your life has been: (full of changes without your knowing what will happen next – completely consistent and clear)	C	O
Item_5	Do you have the feeling that you are in an unfamiliar situation and don’t know what to do?	C	O
Item_6	When you face a difficult problem, the choice of a solution is: (always confusing and hard to find – always completely clear)	C	O
Item_7	Your life in the future will probably be: (full of changes without knowing what will happen next – completely consistent and clear)	C	O
Item_8	Do you have very mixed-up feelings and ideas?	C	O
Item_9	Does it happen that you have feelings inside you would rather not feel?	C	O
Item_10	Does it happen that you have the feeling that you don’t know exactly what’s about to happen?	C	O
Item_11	When something happened, have you generally found that: (you overestimated or underestimated its importance – you saw things in the right proportion)	C	O
Item_12	In the past, when you had to do something which depended upon cooperation with others, did you have the feeling that it: (surely wouldn’t get done – surely would get done)	Ma	O
Item_13	Has it happened that people whom you counted on disappointed you?	Ma	R
Item_14	Do you have the feeling that you’re being treated unfairly?	Ma	O
Item_15	What best describes how you see life: (one can always find a solution to painful things in life – there is no solution to painful things in life)	Ma	R
Item_16	When something unpleasant happened in the past your tendency was: (“to eat yourself up about it” – to say “OK that’s that, I have to live)	Ma	O
Item_17	When you do something that gives you a good feeling: (it’s certain that you’ll go on feeling good – it’s certain that something will happen to spoil the feeling)	Ma	R
Item_18	Do you think that there will always be people whom you’ll be able to count on in the future?	Ma	R
Item_19	Many people – even those with a strong character – sometimes feel like sad sacks (losers) in certain situations. How often have you felt this way in the past?	Ma	R
Item_20	When you think of the difficulties you are likely to face in important aspects of your life, do you have the feeling that: (you will always succeed in overcoming the difficulties – you won’t succeed in overcoming the difficulties)	Ma	R
Item_21	How often do you have feelings that you’re not sure you can keep under control?	Ma	O
Item_22	Do you have the feeling that you don’t really care about what goes on around you?	Me	R
Item_23	Life is: (full of interest – completely routine)	Me	R
Item_24	Until now your life has had: (no clear goals or purpose at all – very clear goals and purpose)	Me	O
Item_25	Most of the things you do in the future will probably be: (completely fascinating – deadly boring)	Me	R
Item_26	When you think about your life, you very often: (feel how good it is to be alive – ask yourself why you exist at all)	Me	R
Item_27	Doing the things you do every day is: (a source of deep pleasure and satisfaction – a source of pain and boredom)	Me	R
Item_28	You anticipate that your personal life in the future will be: (totally without meaning or purpose – full of meaning and purpose)	Me	O
Item_29	How often do you have the feeling that there’s little meaning in the things you do in your daily life?	Me	O