Health psychology (option) contemporary study: Russell et al. (2015)

Aims and procedure

Aims: to provide a stress and coping measure for therapeutic recreation settings by adapting the Response to Stress Questionnaire (RSQ) for adventure-based therapy, so the effectiveness of wilderness and adventure therapy programmes can be better understood.

Procedure:

1. Permission was obtained from the RSQ's original author.

2. Exploratory research with 35 adolescents in an adventure therapy programme identified 56 outdoor stressors, which they rated.

3. The 10 highest-rated stressors (for example, frustration with the group, fear of injury) were built into the RSQ.

4. A panel of experts in wilderness and adventure therapy and in test construction reviewed the items for content validity.

5. The new measure was tested on a larger sample for convergent and discriminant validity.

Sample and results

Sample: 144 adolescents aged 13 to 17 (mean 15.54); 78 male (54%) and 66 female (46%); from a public high school (49%), a private therapeutic high school (42%) and an adventure therapy programme (9%).

Results: the adapted measure, the RSQ-OAV, had 59 items using Likert scales, checklists and open questions. Content, convergent and discriminant validity were moderate to high. Items were reworded for outdoor contexts, for example 'problems getting along with other kids' became 'frustrated with the group or have difficulty with an activity or problem'.

Conclusions: the RSQ-OAV is a reliable and valid measure that allows a better understanding of coping in adventure and wilderness interventions; the physical demands and risks of outdoor adventures create stress that gives chances to learn coping, and the measure could show which programmes best promote coping.

Evaluation

• Strengths: systematic development (adolescents' own stressors, expert panel, statistical validity checks) increases validity; a standardised questionnaire gives quantitative, comparable data; practical application for evaluating therapy programmes.
• Weaknesses: self-report (social desirability, limited insight in teenagers); mostly US adolescents from particular schools, and only 9% from adventure therapy itself, limiting generalisability; validity was tested against the measure itself rather than against behaviour or biological stress measures; adapting a questionnaire may change what it measures.

Worked example

What percentage of Russell et al.'s 144 adolescents came from the adventure therapy programme, and how many people is that?

1. 9% of 144.
2. 0.09 x 144 = 12.96, so about 13 adolescents.
3. That is a small proportion of the sample for a measure designed for adventure therapy.

Answer: About 13 adolescents (9%).

Check yourself

1. Which questionnaire did Russell et al. adapt?
   • The Social Readjustment Rating Scale
   • The Hassles Scale
   • The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory
   • The Response to Stress Questionnaire
   Show answer

   The Response to Stress Questionnaire. The RSQ became the RSQ-OAV.

2. How many outdoor stressors did the exploratory research identify?
   Show answer

   56. 56 stressors, of which the top 10 were used.

3. How many items did the final RSQ-OAV have?
   Show answer

   59. 59 items.

4. Russell et al.'s sample had 78 males out of 144. What percentage is that? Give your answer to 1 decimal place.
   Show answer

   54.2 %. 78 / 144 x 100 = 54.2%.

5. Why did Russell et al. use a panel of experts?
   • To recruit participants
   • To deliver adventure therapy
   • To check the content validity of the new items
   • To calculate a chi-squared test
   Show answer

   To check the content validity of the new items. Experts judge whether items cover what they should.

6. Explain one weakness of using a questionnaire such as the RSQ-OAV to measure coping.
   Show answer

   It relies on self-report, so adolescents may give socially desirable answers or lack insight into how they really cope, which reduces validity.. Self-report problem plus effect.

Practise with instant feedback Print this lesson

Sources

• Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced Level in Psychology specification, Issue 6 (November 2024, first assessment January 2026)
• Pearson IAL Psychology summary of studies: WPS03

Last updated 8 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.