The Control Beliefs Inventory (CBI) is a 26-item multidimensional scale designed to assess four specific health-related control beliefs in adults with and without ongoing health issues. Unlike many other control belief measures it has been developed using samples with and without different chronic illnesses.
Although each of the four subscales (general control, chance control, symptom control, and mastery) can be used with illness populations, it is recommended that the symptom control subscale be omitted when assessing health relevant control beliefs in adults without a current or ongoing health issue (e.g., general adult populations), and that the instructions be changed accordingly.
In prior validity studies with samples of healthy and chronically ill adults, and undergraduates, each subscale demonstrated low correlations with a short version of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale (Strahan & Gerbasi, 1972), with correlations ranging from -.01 to .14 for the Health Control Beliefs subscale, -.01 to .04 for the Symptom Control subscale, and .14 to .16 for the Health Self-efficacy subscale. The wording of the CBI can be altered slightly to refer to symptoms for specific chronic health conditions.
The CBI is currently available in English, and French (Canadian). However, psychometric properties for the French version are still being investigated. Full details for the psychometric properties of the subscales of the English version of the CBI are available in the manual, along with the scale items, scoring, and SPSS syntax.
The CBI and its manual can be downloaded here after completing a brief survey with optional questions about its intended use.
Fuschia Sirois 