Serenity - Concept Analysis And Measurement

Serenity, which refers to the inner peace experienced by some people despite difficult circumstances, may be useful as a practice concept for the elderly. This article presents the results of a concept analysis, including formulation of a definition of serenity to clarify its meaning, and we present results of a pilot investigation of an instrument designed to measure serenity: the Serenity Scale. The instrument was administered to 44 graduate university students and 62 elderly volunteers; subjects were predominantly female and white. Cronbach alpha coefficients of .95 and .92 (students and elderly respondents, respectively) were obtained for the overall scale. Subscale alpha coefficients ranged from .60 to .90 (students) and .28 to .72 (elderly). Although results indicated that the instrument is measuring a single construct with a high degree of consistency, the reliability of subscales below .60 needs improvement. Studies designed to measure construct validity of the instrument beyond the concept analys...