Translation, cultural adaptation, and psychometric testing of the environmental distress scale with Indonesian survivors of a volcanic eruption.

Objective: The Mt Merapi volcanic eruption in October 2010 claimed more than 386 lives, injured thousands of survivors, and devastated the surrounding environment. No instrument was available in Indonesia to assess the psychosocial impact on survivors of environmental degradation caused by such natural disasters. We developed, translated, and tested an Indonesian version of the Environmental Distress Scale (EDS) for use as a tool to reliably measure environmental distress related to environmental damage in Indonesia.

Method: The EDS, a prospective translation and psychometric study, was modified for use in a volcano disaster setting in Indonesia; translated into Indonesian; and pilot tested to determine meaning and cultural appropriateness. A test-retest study with 80 survivors of the 2010 Mt Merapi volcanic eruption measured the reliability of the tool.

Results: The Indonesian version of the EDS (I-EDS) captured the content of the original EDS with appropriate adaptations for cultural differences of Indonesian natural disaster survivors.

Conclusions: The I-EDS can be considered a reliable tool for assessing the psychosocial impact of environmental degradation from natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, which might be useful for Indonesian researchers.