Elementary school epilepsy survey (ESES): a new measure of elementary school students' knowledge and attitudes about...

No peer-reviewed, published, psychometrically tested scales are available to assess elementary school students' general knowledge and attitudes about epilepsy. Such a scale is needed for evaluation of the effectiveness of classroom education programs. The purpose of this work was to develop and validate a brief, reliable scale for grades 4-6 to assess students' knowledge and attitudes about epilepsy and persons diagnosed with epilepsy.

Development of the 22-item Elementary School Epilepsy Survey (ESES) followed standard protocol for scale development. It includes a 12-item Knowledge subscale and a 10-item Attitudes subscale. The ESES was administered during regular classroom time given and repeated 1 week later. No educational intervention took place.

Mean age of the 155 students was 11 years (range 9.8-13.9): grade 4, 56 students; grade 5, 36; and grade 6, 63 students. The ESES Total scale and Attitudes subscale had good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.72 and 0.81, respectively). As expected, the Knowledge subscale had low internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha=0.50). Test-retest scores indicated good reliability and strong discriminant validity, with significant increases noted in all ESES scores with increasing age and in those who knew someone with epilepsy.

The ESES detects developmental and experiential trends in students' knowledge and attitude about epilepsy. It has good internal consistency and test-retest reliability.