Development of a self-report measure of social functioning for forensic inpatients

Abstract

Despite increasing interest in the measurement of social functioning in people with personality disorder, there are currently no social functioning measures specifically for forensic or other inpatients with a diagnosis of personality disorder. This paper describes the development and validation of the Hospital Social Functioning Questionnaire (HSFQ), a self-report measure of social functioning for forensic inpatients. A sample of fifty four male inpatients in a forensic personality disorder treatment unit completed the HSFQ and a range of measures indicative of social functioning, namely self-report measures of psychological wellbeing and symptoms, recorded incidents of self-harm and aggression. Clinicians' ratings of global functioning, and clinically assessed personality disorder severity were also collected. The HSFQ showed good internal consistency and test–retest reliability, good concurrent validity with self-report measures of personality pathology, other symptoms and psychological wellbeing, but only a moderate correlation with clinician-rated global functioning and with frequency of self-harm and aggressive behavior. These results suggest that the HSFQ is a more focused measure of social functioning than the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), which conflates social functioning with self harm and aggressive behavior. The HSFQ is a potentially useful assessment of social functioning in secure and other inpatient settings.