title: Validity of a brief measure of post-hospital adjustment for psychiatric patients.
abstract: This study examined the psychometric properties of a 14-item self-administered outcome measure of post-hospital adjustment for former psychiatric inpatients. Such scales are frequently used in follow-up assessment, often without knowledge of scale reliability or validity. Responses to the scale items were factor analyzed for two samples, former patients and their therapists, each group rating the patient's post-hospital adjustment. Two strong factors emerged and were consistent across both samples: an anxiety-depression (intrapsychic) dimension and a functioning/productivity (external adjustment) dimension. Both scales showed good convergent validity with longer, standardized measures. Agreement between patients and therapists was adequate for anxiety-depression, indicating good consensual validity, but poor for functional adjustment. For the expatients, discriminant validity was not evident.
authors.affiliation: Preventive Cardiology, Hartford Hospital, 85 Jefferson Street, Hartford, CT 06106, USA.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Dornelas
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Botticello
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Goethe
authors.forename: E H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Fischer
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D015588:Observer Variation; D010351:Patient Discharge; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D012050:Rehabilitation, Vocational / Q000523:psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012917:Social Adjustment; D016896:Treatment Outcome