Description:

The Hazardous Events Scale – Military (HES-M) is modeled after the civil Hazardous Event Scale. It was developed under contract to the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. Development of the HES-M proceeded by first administering over 80 potential items to a small (N = 85) sample of Army Aviators. Using the data from that administration, items were ranked on the proportion of non-zero responses. Generally, those items were chosen for inclusion in the reduced-length scale for which 20% or more of the respondents had a non-zero response, indicating that they had experienced the indicated event at least once during the previous 24 months. However, a few items were included based on their content; for example, addressing an issue such as crew coordination. This resulted in a final HES-M consisting of 36 items. The 36-item scale length was arbitrary, and represented a desire to include a broad range of potentially useful items, while not presenting too burdensome a task to respondents.

Scoring:

An overall HES-M score was computed by summing the responses for the 36 items.

Reliability:

The coefficient alpha measure of internal consistency for the combined sample of Army Aviators (N = 653) was 0.90.

Construct Validity:

The HES-M was significantly correlated (r = .15) with recent accident involvement by Army Aviators. The positive correlation between HES-M and accident involvement indicates that Aviators who reported having been in more hazardous events were more likely to have been in an accident over the previous 24 months.

Normative Information:

For the Army sample (N = 653), HES-M had a range of 0 to 94 and a mean = 24.98 (SD = 18.26).

References:

Hunter, D.R., & Stewart, J.E. (2009). Locus of Control, Risk Orientation, and Decision Making Among U.S. Army Aviators. (TR 1260). Ft. Rucker, AL: U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences.