Psychological Evaluation and Research Laboratory (PEaRL), Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.
Assessment. 2009 Dec;16(4):373-83. doi: 10.1177/1073191109333756. Epub 2009 May 5.
Multi-item multiscale self-report measures are increasingly used in inpatient assessments. When considering a measure for this setting, it is important to evaluate the psychometric properties of the clinical scales and items to ensure that they are functioning as intended in a highly distressed clinical population. The present study examines scale properties for a self-report measure frequently employed in inpatient assessments, the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI). In addition to examining internal consistency statistics, this study extends prior PAI research by considering key issues related to inpatient assessment (e.g., scale distinctiveness, ceiling effects). Coefficient alphas, interitem correlations, and item- scale relationships suggest that the PAI clinical scales and subscales are internally consistent. Items for respective clinical scales generally showed significantly higher item-scale correlations with their intended scale (as compared with their item-scale correlation with scales they were not intended to measure). In addition, scales' coefficient alpha scores were higher than their interscale correlations. Taken as a whole, these results support the hypothesis that PAI scales were measuring relatively distinct constructs in this inpatient sample. Findings are discussed with regard to the implications for scale interpretation in inpatient assessment, functioning of individual scales and subscales, and functioning of specific items. Limitations of the present study and directions for future research are discussed.
多项目多尺度自我报告量表在住院评估中越来越多地被使用。在考虑将某种测量方法应用于该环境时，评估临床量表和项目的心理计量学特性非常重要，以确保它们在高度痛苦的临床人群中按预期发挥作用。本研究考察了常用于住院评估的自我报告量表——人格评估量表（PAI）的量表特性。除了检验内部一致性统计外，本研究还通过考虑与住院评估相关的关键问题（例如，量表独特性、天花板效应）扩展了先前的 PAI 研究。系数阿尔法、项目间相关性和项目-量表关系表明，PAI 临床量表和子量表具有内部一致性。与预期量表相比，各临床量表的项目通常与各自量表的项目-量表相关性更高（与量表的项目-量表相关性相比，这些量表并非旨在衡量）。此外，量表的系数阿尔法分数高于其量表间相关性。总的来说，这些结果支持了 PAI 量表在该住院样本中测量相对独特结构的假设。讨论了这些发现对住院评估中量表解释、单个量表和子量表的功能以及特定项目的功能的影响。讨论了本研究的局限性和未来研究的方向。
