The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #65856

Kristine S. Calderon, PhD, CHES¹, William T. Hey, PhD², Holly Carrol, MPH¹, and Winifred W. Thompson, MSW¹. (1) Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina, 800 Sumter Street, 216F, Arnold School of Public Health, Columbia, SC 29208, (2) Department of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, Jacksonville State University, 700 Pelham Road North, Jacksonville, AL 36265

College students continue to be involved in higher rates of risk behaviors that compromise their quality of life. These students need to be encouraged to engage in and adopt wellness promoting attitudes and behaviors that will carry into their lives. The purpose of this research was to use a body-mind-spirit model to measure college student wellness attitudes and behaviors and to develop the Body-Mind-Spirit Wellness Attitude and Behavior Inventory (BMS-WABI) for college students. The first study phase included item generation and factor analysis using 1000 college students with average loadings of 0.64, 0.51, and 0.58 for the spirit, mind and body factors, respectively. Using a minimum 4.0 Eigenvalue criterion, the factors accounted for 30% of item variance. The second study phase included validity testing of the BMS-WABI using the National Wellness Institute’s TestWell (college version), the EATS Quick Food Scan By-Meal Screener and construct physical activity questions with 141students. The BMS-WABI dimensions had high, positive correlations with all appropriate TestWell subscales. The body dimension significantly correlated with the By-Meal screener and both physical activity questions. Factor split-half reliabilities ranged from 0.73 to 0.84 and alpha coefficients ranged from 0.75 to 0.92. The results of this research indicate that the BMS-WABI for college students can serve as a useful tool in the assessment of college students’ health risk behaviors and to help identify and target potential intervention to specific groups of students to live healthier lives.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to:
• Define the wellness constructs of body, mind and spirit.
• Identify survey items reported with strong reliability and validity that measure mind, body, and spirit wellness constructs.
• Describe how the use of a well-constructed wellness survey can serve as a tool to promote healthy lifestyles among college students.

Keywords: Wellness, College Students

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.