title: Self-defense and martial arts evaluation for college women: preliminary validation of perceptions of dangerous situations scale.
abstract: Martial arts and self-defense programs train fearful people, especially women, to be more competent and confident to defend themselves in dangerous situations. However, there are no validated instruments to evaluate the effectiveness of programs purporting to teach self-protection. The Perceptions of Dangerous Situations Scale (PDSS), composed of fear, likelihood and confidence subscales, was developed and validated for university women. Participants were 368 university women, ages 17 to 45 years (M age = 20.7 years). Content validity of the PDSS was established through an expert panel, and construct validity was established through principal components analysis and determination of instructional sensitivity. Reliability was established through alpha coefficients. The PDSS, when used with university women, offers promising measurement opportunities in self-defense and martial arts settings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Human Performance, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater 74078, USA. hughesp@okstate.edu
authors.forename: Patricia Paulsen
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: Claudine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sherrill
authors.forename: Bettye
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rowe
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Marshall
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology; D003617:Dangerous Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016139:Martial Arts / Q000193:education*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010806:Physical Education and Training / Q000379:methods*; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012938:Social Perception; D013781:Texas; D014495:Universities; D035862:Vulnerable Populations / Q000523:psychology; D014894:Weights and Measures