Table 1 Phrasing and trichotomization of variables translated into English
Alienation variant | Variable name | Phrasing | Response categories | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
High | Medium | Low | |||
Powerlessness | Cannot overcome problemsa | If you try hard enough, how often do you know what to do to overcome a problem? | ‘Never’ and ‘Rarely’ (know what to do) | ‘Sometimes’ | ‘Often’ and ‘Always’ |
Cannot manage thingsa | How often can you manage things you set out to do? | ‘Never’ and ‘Rarely’ (able to manage things) | ‘Sometimes’ | ‘Often’ and ‘Always’ | |
Feeling helplessa | How often do you feel helpless? | ‘Always’ and ‘Often’ | ‘Sometimes’ | ‘Rarely’ and ‘Never’ | |
Meaninglessness | Things have no meaninga | How often do you feel there is little meaning in the things you do in your daily life? | ’Very often’ and ‘Often’ | ‘Sometimes’ | ‘Seldom’ and ‘Never’ |
Not knowing what is going ona | How often do you feel you don’t really know what is happening? | ’Very often’ and ‘Often’ | ‘Sometimes’ | ‘Seldom’ and ‘Never’ | |
School is not preparing me for the futureb | School prepares me for what I want to do when I leave. | ‘Strongly disagree’ and ‘Disagree’ (that school prepares me) | ’Neither agree nor disagree’ | ’Agree’ and ‘Strongly agree’ | |
Social isolation | Feeling left outa | How often do you feel left out of things? | ‘Always’ and ‘Often’ | ‘Sometimes’ | ‘Rarely’ and ‘Never’ |
Not feeling close to familyb | Do you feel close to your family? | ‘Never’ and ‘Rarely’ | ‘Sometimes’ | ‘Always’ and ‘Often’ | |
No support when unhappyb | Are there people you can turn to for support when you are unhappy? | ‘Never’ and ‘Rarely’ | ‘Sometimes’ | ‘Often’ and ‘Always’ | |
Feeling lonelya | Do you ever feel lonely? | ‘Yes, very often’ and ‘Yes, often’ | ’Yes, sometimes’ | ’No′ | |
Not belongingb | I feel I belong to several different groups of friends. | ‘Strongly disagree’ and ‘Disagree’ | ’Neither agree nor disagree’ | ’Agree’ and ‘Strongly agree’, | |