The Tennessee self-description form and correlates of health

This study was conducted to explore the relationships between the work, social, health, and leisure areas of life style effectiveness contained in the Tennessee Self-Description Form and selected health indicator variables for an adult, nonclinical population. Indicator variables included fasting total serum cholesterol and triglyceride, locus of control, and the Type A behavior pattern.

A total of 462 subjects, representing 198 university faculty and staff, 156 registered nurses, and 108 nursing students, participated in the study. All respondents completed a series of questionnaires. Fasting total serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels were obtained through review of Operation Health Check records.

There were significant negative correlations found between the Tennessee Self-Description Form work, social, health, and total scores and the Speed and Impatience subscale score of the Jenkins Activity Survey. An additional significant inverse relationship was found between the Tennessee Self-Description Form social score and the global Type A score. Significant negative correlations, which indicated that an internal locus of control was associated with an increased Tennessee Self-Description Form life style effectiveness score, were determined for scores on Rotter's locus of control and the Tennessee Self-Description Form work, social, health, leisure, and total scores. A comparison of fasting serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels between high score groups (greater than one standard deviation above the mean for normative data) and low score groups (lower than one standard deviation unit below the normative mean) for Tennessee Self-Description Form areas of life style effectiveness yielded no statistically significant differences with the exception of serum triglyceride level for the health score groups.

A factor analysis generally supported the initial placement of Tennessee Self-Description Form items into the work, social, and health areas of life style effective ness. The leisure area was eliminated prior to factor analysis because a large amount of measurement error was associated with this area. A salient feature of the factor analysis was the absence of bipolar factors.

Initial validation of the Tennessee Self-Description Form for use as a research measure of life style as a health-specific construct has been presented. The findings of this study provided support for links between traditional life style risk factors and health that have been identified in previous research. Additionally, the results offered beginning evidence for the interrelationships between health and commonplace activities such as general patterns of work and social behavior. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.