ABSTRACT
AIMS: To generate a short version of a newly developed inventory that adopted the conceptual framework of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) consensus statement on recovery. METHODS: Through Rasch analysis, this paper presents how this recovery inventory (SAMHSA-RIC), with its original 111 items, can be reduced to a much shorter version with only 41 items. RESULTS: Although internal consistency is slightly lowered because of item reduction, the short version maintains satisfactory and significant correlations with quality of life measures. Overall, the canonical correlation between the scale and WHOQOL-BREF was virtually the same, with only a 0.2% decrease. CONCLUSIONS: SAMHSA-RIC (short version) has strong potential to become a general tool for evaluating rehabilitative services for persons with persistent and severe mental illness. A validation study of the short version with clinical samples is warranted.
Subject(s)
Asian People/psychology , Schizophrenia/rehabilitation , Surveys and Questionnaires/standards , United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration , Adolescent , Adult , Asian People/statistics & numerical data , Hong Kong , Humans , Interview, Psychological/methods , Interview, Psychological/standards , Middle Aged , Outpatients/psychology , Outpatients/statistics & numerical data , Psychometrics , Quality of Life/psychology , Reproducibility of Results , Schizophrenic Psychology , United States , Young AdultABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Self-agency--the awareness of one's own capacity to make decisions and to engage in deliberate action - is often interfered with or lost during the course of severe mental illness. Most existing literature on self-agency is either of experimental or qualitative nature, and empirical evidence is scanty. SAMPLING AND METHODS: This paper draws on a subset of empirical data from a larger recovery study that involved 204 people with schizophrenia in the community. Structural equation models are built to contrast the models with and without the contribution of self-agency. RESULTS: The self-agency factor loads significantly on variables from five major areas of recovery (hope, empowerment, resilience, self-responsibility and self-mastery). Structural equation models show that the incorporation of this self-agency construct has vastly improved the modeling of the adverse effect of stigma on the quality of life of these subjects. The model with self-agency fitted the criteria better, and explained more total variance (increased from 56 to 80%) for the quality of life of these subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Cross-sectional empirical findings appear to support the claim that self-agency is an important construct that cuts through many dimensions of recovery. Initial discussions are made on the nature and function of self-agency, and its relations with recovery concepts and components.
