DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF COVENANT GERONTOLOGY SCALE: SCREENING TOOL FOR COUNSELLING PURPOSE

Abstract

As it applies in the medical world, professional psychological counselling is hardly complete without adequate assessment with relevant standardized psychological instruments.  The objective of this study, therefore, was to develop and validate a Gerontology Scale that could empirically measure the psychological and physical wellbeing of elderly people.  The emphasis of this preliminary study was on internal consistency reliability, content validity and construct validity.  Seventy-two people with age ranging from 40 to 80 years served as study sample. Their responses were subjected to descriptive statistics [frequency count, percentages and charts] and parametric statistics [t-test and regression].  The core findings were: the CGS has acceptable internal consistency reliability (r = 0.84); the CGS further furnished evidence of discriminant validity in being able to differentiate the health status of middle aged and elderly respondents.  It was therefore recommended that Counselling Psychologists, Gerontologists and related professionals should regularly administer a standardized gerontology scale of this nature to allow for timely preventive interventions that would facilitate the health and overall wellbeing of the aged in our communities.