title: Psychometrics of the Personal Questionnaire: A client-generated outcome measure.
abstract: We present a range of evidence for the reliability and validity of data generated by the Personal Questionnaire (PQ), a client-generated individualized outcome measure, using 5 data sets from 3 countries. Overall pretherapy mean internal consistency (alpha) across clients was .80, and within-client alphas averaged .77; clients typically had 1 or 2 items that did not vary with the other items. Analyses of temporal structure indicated high levels of between-clients variance (58%), moderate pretherapy test-retest correlation (r = .57), and high session-to-session Lag-1 autocorrelation (.82). Scores on the PQ provided clear evidence of convergence with a range of outcome measures (within-client r = .41). Mean pre-post effects were large (d = 1.25). The results support a revised caseness cutoff of 3.25 and a reliable change index interval of 1.67. We conclude that PQ data meet criteria for evidence-based, norm-referenced measurement of client psychological distress for supporting psychotherapy practice and research.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Science and Health, University of Strathclyde.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3527-3397
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Elliott
authors.affiliation: Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Centre of Vancouver.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigação em Educação e Psicologia, Universidade de Évora.
authors.forename: Célia M D
authors.initials: CMD
authors.lastname: Sales
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, University of Queensland.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rodgers
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social, ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa.
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.affiliation: Portuguese Association of Family and Community Therapy.
authors.forename: Maria J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Café
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D011174:Portugal; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012606:Scotland; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States