Sense of coherence, negative affectivity, and general health in farm supervisors

Abstract

Interview schedules were administered, 9 mo. apart, to 79 male first-line supervisors. The first included the 13-item Sense of Coherence scale (Antonovsky) and the PANAS, from which the Negative Affectivity scale was used; the second included two graphic rating scales for general health. Scores on Sense of Coherence and Negative Affectivity correlated -.30, indicating that the relationship is not always strong enough to assume that the former scale measures the inverse of the latter. Scores on Sense of Coherence and health ratings correlated .26, reducing to .25 with Negative Affectivity partialled out. This supports the validity of the Sense of Coherence scale as a measure of Antonovsky's "salutogenesis" construct.