title: Development of a self-report measure of social functioning for forensic inpatients.
abstract: Despite increasing interest in the measurement of social functioning in people with personality disorder, there are currently no social functioning measures specifically for forensic or other inpatients with a diagnosis of personality disorder. This paper describes the development and validation of the Hospital Social Functioning Questionnaire (HSFQ), a self-report measure of social functioning for forensic inpatients. A sample of fifty four male inpatients in a forensic personality disorder treatment unit completed the HSFQ and a range of measures indicative of social functioning, namely self-report measures of psychological wellbeing and symptoms, recorded incidents of self-harm and aggression. Clinicians' ratings of global functioning, and clinically assessed personality disorder severity were also collected. The HSFQ showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability, good concurrent validity with self-report measures of personality pathology, other symptoms and psychological wellbeing, but only a moderate correlation with clinician-rated global functioning and with frequency of self-harm and aggressive behavior. These results suggest that the HSFQ is a more focused measure of social functioning than the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), which conflates social functioning with self harm and aggressive behavior. The HSFQ is a potentially useful assessment of social functioning in secure and other inpatient settings.
authors: Men's Personality Disorder Service, Rampton Hospital, Retford DN22 OPD, UK. Electronic address: Philip.Willmot@nottshc.nhs.uk.
authors: Phil
authors: P
authors: Willmot
authors: Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, Triumph Road, Nottingham NG7 2TU, UK.
authors: Mary
authors: M
authors: McMurran
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D017144:Focus Groups; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report / Q000592:standards*; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior; D012919:Social Behavior; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: Measurement; Personality disorder; Social functioning