An instrument to ascertain the sociological characteristics of mall walking clubs and social health of their older adult members

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument capable of ascertaining the sociological characteristics of mall walking clubs and social health of members of mall walking clubs in Hamilton County, Tennessee. A face validity evaluation was determined by a jury of judges on the preliminary instrument which resulted in the first draft of the instrument. The first draft of the instrument was pilot tested resulting in a revised draft which was administered to the study population consisting of one hundred randomly selected members of two mall walking clubs in Hamilton County, Tennessee.

The data was gathered by the researcher through telephone interviews and was subject to computer assisted point biserial item analysis and Chronbach alpha. Statistical analyses rendered a two part instrument, A and B. Part A of the instrument is capable of collecting information concerning the homogeneity, network size, density, and geographic dispersion of mall walking clubs in Hamilton County. Part B of the instrument consists of four Likert subscales, strength of ties, reciprocity, multiplexity, and social health, capable of determining socioemotional aid among mall walking club members and the social health of mall walking club members. The alpha coefficients of the four subscales ranged from .51 to .88. Part B of the instrument is also capable of determining the relationship between strength of ties, reciprocity, multiplexity and social health. Significant correlations were found between the subscales of strength of ties, reciprocity, multiplexity and social health.

Additional administrations need to be given to other samples of mall walking clubs to further test the reliability of the instrument of this study.