Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Psychometric Properties of a Brief Instrument to Assess Perceptions of Injustice Associated with Debilitating Health and Mental Health Conditions

  • Published:
Psychological Injury and Law Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The present study examined the psychometric properties of a shortened and simplified version of the Injustice Experience Questionnaire (IEQ). The instructional set of the original IEQ was modified to make it better suited to the context of debilitating health and mental health conditions that do not necessarily arise as a result of injury. The number of items was reduced from 12 to 5, and the response scale was simplified. The Injustice Experiences Questionnaire – Short Form (IEQ-SF) was administered to individuals diagnosed with a chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) condition (N = 88) or major depressive disorder (MDD) (N = 87). The internal consistency of the IEQ-SF was acceptable. The IEQ-SF was significantly correlated with measures of pain severity, depressive symptom severity and disability in both samples. Individuals with MDD scored higher on the IEQ-SF than individuals with MSK. The IEQ-SF was shown to be sensitive to treatment-related reductions in perceived injustice. Preliminary analyses suggest that the IEQ-SF is a reliable and valid measure of disability-related injustice perceptions associated with debilitating health and mental health conditions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Burckhardt, C. S., & Jones, K. D. (2005). Effects of chronic widespread pain on the health status and quality of life of women after breast cancer surgery. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 3(1), 30.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Clayton, S. D. (2005). The experience of injustice: some characteristics and correlates. Social Justice Research, 5, 71–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16, 297–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dworkin, R. H., Turk, D. C., Revicki, D. A., Harding, G., Coyne, K. S., Peirce-Sandner, S., Bhagwat, D., Everton, D., Burke, L. B., Cowan, P., Farrar, J. T., Hertz, S., Max, M. B., Rappaport, B. A., & Melzack, R. (2009). Development and initial validation of an expanded and revised version of the Short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ-2). Pain, 144(1–2), 35–42.

  • Ezenwa, M. O., Molokie, R. E., Wilkie, D. J., Suarez, M. L., & Yao, Y. (2014). Perceived injustice predicts stress and pain in adults with sickle cell disease. Pain Management Nursing.

  • Ferrari, R., & Russell, A. S. (2014). Perceived injustice in fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. Clinical Rheumatololgy.

  • Freud, S. (1917). Mourning and Melancholia. In A. Strachey (Ed.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. (Vol. XIV (1914–1916) (pp. 237–258). London: Hogarth Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbody, S., Richards, D., Brealey, S., & Hewitt, C. (2007). Screening for depression in medical settings with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ): a diagnostic meta-analysis. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 22(11), 1596–1602.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Grynderup, M. B., Mors, O., Hansen, A. M., Andersen, J. H., Bonde, J. P., Kaergaard, A., Kaerlev, L., Mikkelsen, S., Rugulies, R., Thomsen, J. F., & Kolstad, H. A. (2013). Work-unit measures of organisational justice and risk of depression—a 2-year cohort study. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 70(6), 380–385.

  • Hood, A., Pulvers, K., Carrillo, J., Merchant, G., & Thomas, M. (2012). Positive traits linked to less pain through lower pain catastrophizing. Personality Individual Differences, 52(3), 401–405.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Huang, F. Y., Chung, H., Kroenke, K., Delucchi, K. L., & Spitzer, R. L. (2006). Using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 to measure depression among racially and ethnically diverse primary care patients. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21(6), 547–552.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kawachi, I. (2006). Injustice at work and health: causation or correlation? Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 63(9), 578–579.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kivimaki, M., Vahtera, J., Elovainio, M., Virtanen, M., & Siegrist, J. (2007). Effort-reward imbalance, procedural injustice and relational injustice as psychosocial predictors of health: complementary or redundant models? Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 64(10), 659–665.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lerner, M. J. (1977). Justice motive—some hypotheses as to its origins and forms. Journal of Personality, 45(1), 3–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, C., Friedman, B., Conwell, Y., & Fiscella, K. (2007). Validity of the Patient Health Questionnaire 2 (PHQ-2) in identifying major depression in older people. Journal of the American Geriatric Society, 55(4), 596–602.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lind, E. A., & Tyler, T. R. (1988). The social psychology of procedural justice. New York: Plenum Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lowe, B., Kroenke, K., Herzog, W., & Grafe, K. (2004). Measuring depression outcome with a brief self-report instrument: sensitivity to change of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Journal of Affective Disorders, 81, 61–66.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Macdonald, M. R. (2004). Catastrophizing, coping and validation for chronic pain: a comment on Boothby et al. (2004). Pain, 112(1–2), 221.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Melzack, R. (1987). The short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire. Pain, 30, 191–197.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, D. T. (2001). Disrespect and the experience of injustice. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 527–553.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rodero, B., Luciano, J. V., Montero-Marin, J., Casanueva, B., Palacin, J. C., Gili, M., Lopez Del Hoyo, Y., Serrano-Blanco, A., & Garcia-Campayo, J. (2012). Perceived injustice in fibromyalgia: psychometric characteristics of the Injustice Experience Questionnaire and relationship with pain catastrophising and pain acceptance. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 73(2), 86–91.

  • Scott, W., & Sullivan, M. J. L. (2012). Perceived injustice moderates the relationship between pain and depressive symptoms among individuals with persistent musculoskeletal pain. Pain Research & Management, 17(5), 335–340.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, W., Trost, Z., Milioto, M., & Sullivan, M. J. L. (2013). Further validation of a measure of injury-related injustice perceptions to identify risk for occupational disability: a prospective study of individuals with whiplash injury. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation.

  • Spell, C. S., & Arnold, T. (2007). An appraisal perspective of justice, structure, and job control as antecedents of psychological distress. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 28, 729–751.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spitzer, R. L., Williams, J. B. W., Kroenke, K., & the Patient Health Questionnaire Primary Care Study Group (1999). Patient health questionnaire—9. Prime MD today. New York: Pfizer Inc.

  • Sullivan, M. J. L., Adams, H., & Ellis, T. (2013). A psychosocial risk-targeted intervention to reduce work disability: development, evolution and implementation. Psychological Injury and Law, 6, 1407–1415.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, M. J. L., Adams, H., Horan, S., Maher, D., Boland, D., & Gross, R. (2008). The role of perceived injustice in the experience of chronic pain and disability: scale development and validation. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 18(3), 249–261.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, M. J. L., Adams, H., Martel, M. O., Scott, W., & Wideman, T. (2011). Catastrophizing and perceived injustice: risk factors for the transition to chronicity after whiplash injury. Spine, 36(25 Suppl), S244–S249.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, M. J. L., Scott, W., & Trost, Z. (2012). Perceived injustice: a risk factor for problematic pain outcomes. The Clinical Journal of Pain, 28(6), 484–488.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, M. J. L., Thibault, P., Simmonds, M. J., Milioto, M., Cantin, A. P., & Velly, A. M. (2009). Pain, perceived injustice and the persistence of post-traumatic stress symptoms during the course of rehabilitation for whiplash injuries. Pain, 145(3), 325–331.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tait, R. C., Chibnall, J. T., & Krause, S. (1990). The Pain Disability Index: psychometric properties. Pain, 40(2), 171–182.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yakobov, E., Scott, W., Stanish, W., Dunbar, M., Richardson, G., & Sullivan, M. J. L. (2014a). The role of perceived injustice in the prediction of pain and function following total knee arthroplasty. Pain, 155, 2040–2046.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yakobov, E., Scott, W., Tanzer, M., Stanish, W., Dunbar, M., Richardson, G., & Sullivan, M. J. L. (2014b). Validation of the Injustice Experiences Questionnaire adapted for use with patients with severe osteoarthritis of the knee. Journal of Arthritis, 3, 130–136.

  • Ybema, J. F., & van den Bos, K. (2010). Effects of organizational justice on depressive symptoms and sickness absence: a longitudinal perspective. Social Science and Medicine, 70, 1609–1617.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors have no financial interests associated with the findings of this research. This research was supported by funds from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Doctor Penfield Avenue, Montreal, QC, H3A 1B1, Canada

    Michael J. L. Sullivan, Esther Yakobov & Pascal Thibault

  2. Department of Surgery, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Heather Adams

  3. Centre for Rehabilitation and Health, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Tamra Ellis

Authors
  1. Michael J. L. Sullivan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Heather Adams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Esther Yakobov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Tamra Ellis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Pascal Thibault
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael J. L. Sullivan.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Informed Consent

This research was approved by the Research Ethics Board of the McGill University Health Centre.

Animal Rights

No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sullivan, M.J.L., Adams, H., Yakobov, E. et al. Psychometric Properties of a Brief Instrument to Assess Perceptions of Injustice Associated with Debilitating Health and Mental Health Conditions. Psychol. Inj. and Law 9, 48–54 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-015-9247-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-015-9247-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation