Psychometric Properties of Difficulties of Working with Patients with Personality Disorders and Attitudes Towards Patients with Personality Disorders Scales.

INTRODUCTION

In this study, we aimed to develop two reliable and valid assessment instruments for investigating the level of difficulties mental health workers experience while working with patients with personality disorders and the attitudes they develop tt the patients.

METHODS

The research was carried out based on the general screening model. The study sample consisted of 332 mental health workers in several mental health clinics of Turkey, with a certain amount of experience in working with personality disorders, who were selected with a random assignment method. In order to collect data, the Personal Information Questionnaire, Difficulty of Working with Personality Disorders Scale (PD-DWS), and Attitudes Towards Patients with Personality Disorders Scale (PD-APS), which are being examined for reliability and validity, were applied. To determine construct validity, the Adjective Check List, Maslach Burnout Inventory, and State and Trait Anxiety Inventory were used. Explanatory factor analysis was used for investigating the structural validity, and Cronbach alpha, Spearman-Brown, Guttman Split-Half reliability analyses were utilized to examine the reliability. Also, item reliability and validity computations were carried out by investigating the corrected item-total correlations and discriminative indexes of the items in the scales.

RESULTS

For the PD-DWS KMO test, the value was .946; also, a significant difference was found for the Bartlett sphericity test (p<.001). The computed test-retest coefficient reliability was .702; the Cronbach alpha value of the total test score was .952. For PD-APS KMO, the value was .925; a significant difference was found in Bartlett sphericity test (p<.001); the computed reliability coefficient based on continuity was .806; and the Cronbach alpha value of the total test score was .913. Analyses on both scales were based on total scores.

CONCLUSION

It was found that PD-DWS and PD-APS have good psychometric properties, measuring the structure that is being investigated, are compatible with other scales, have high levels of internal reliability between their items, and are consistent across time. Therefore, it was concluded that both scales are valid and reliable instruments.