Properties of the Portuguese version of the empowerment scale with mental health organization users.
BACKGROUND
This study examines the reliability and validity of the Portuguese version of the Empowerment Scale (ES) to be used in the community/psychosocial mental health field. Authors also reviewed the properties of the development and cross-cultural adaptation of the ES. Because mental health services are required to encourage empowerment and recovery-oriented interventions, adequate empowerment-oriented outcome measures are needed to evaluate services and study interventions across countries.


METHODS
The current research was part of a larger research project with 213 participants. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to observe the ES's construct-related validity, and a reliability analysis for internal consistency. The ES concurrent validity with the recovery and psychiatric symptoms measures was also assessed using the Pearson's correlation coefficient.


RESULTS
The CFA supported the five-factor configuration for the refined model of measure as satisfactory. The Portuguese version of the ES presented an overall satisfactory reliability (α = .79) and was positively correlated with personal recovery (r = .71) and inversely with psychiatric symptoms (r = -.22).


CONCLUSIONS
The overall scale was considered reliable and valid to be used by Portuguese researchers and practitioners to evaluate empowering interventions in mental health services. Furthermore, in the effort to increase ES construct-related validity, this article suggests further improvements to enhance the empowerment measure.
ISPA - Instituto Universitário, Rua Jardim do Tabaco, 34, 1149-041 Lisboa, Portugal.
Maria Fátima
MF
Jorge-Monteiro
ISPA - Instituto Universitário, Rua Jardim do Tabaco, 34, 1149-041 Lisboa, Portugal.
José Henrique
JH
Ornelas
Empowerment scale; Mental health; Reliability; Validity