ERIC Number: EJ751226
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Dec
Pages: 14
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1040-3590
EISSN: N/A
Deconstructing Therapy Outcome Measurement with Rasch Analysis of a Measure of General Clinical Distress: The Symptom Checklist-90-Revised
Elliott, Robert; Fox, Christine M.; Beltyukova, Svetlana A.; Stone, Gregory E.; Gunderson, Jennifer; Zhang, Xi
Psychological Assessment, v18 n4 p359-372 Dec 2006
Rasch analysis was used to illustrate the usefulness of item-level analyses for evaluating a common therapy outcome measure of general clinical distress, the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R; Derogatis, 1994). Using complementary therapy research samples, the instrument's 5-point rating scale was found to exceed clients' ability to make reliable discriminations and could be improved by collapsing it into a 3-point version (combining scale points 1 with 2 and 3 with 4). This revision, in addition to removing 3 misfitting items, increased person separation from 4.90 to 5.07 and item separation from 7.76 to 8.52 (resulting in alphas of 0.96 and 0.99, respectively). Some SCL-90-R subscales had low internal consistency reliabilities; SCL-90-R items can be used to define one factor of general clinical distress that is generally stable across both samples, with two small residual factors.
Descriptors: Therapy, Rating Scales, Item Response Theory, Test Items, Symptoms (Individual Disorders), Check Lists, Reliability, Stress Variables, Mental Health
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org/publications
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A