Development and Preliminary Psychometric Evaluation of a Brief Self Report Questionnaire for the Assessment of the DSM 5 level of Personality Functioning Scale: The LPFS Brief Form (LPFS BF)
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed. DSM 5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) alternative model for personality disorders (PDs) introduced a new paradigm for the assessment of PDs that includes levels of personality functioning indexing the severity of personality pathology irrespective of diagnosis. In this study, we describe the development and preliminary psychometric evaluation of a newly developed brief self report questionnaire to assess levels of personality functioning, the Level of Personality Functioning Scale Brief Form (LPFS BF; Bender, Morey, Skodol, 2011) Patients (N 240) referred to a specialized setting for the assessment and treatment of PDs completed the LPFS BF, the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Derogatis, 1975) the Severity Indices of Personality Problems (SIPP 118; Verheul et al. 2008) and were administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM IV Axis I Personality Disorders (SCID I; APA, 1994; First, Spitzer, Gibbon, Williams, 1997) and the SCID Axis II Personality Disorders (SCID II; First, Spitzer, Gibbon, Williams, Benjamin, 1996) When constrained to a 2 factor oblique solution, the LPFS BF yielded a structure that corresponded well to an interpretation of Self and Interpersonal Functioning scales. The instrument demonstrated fair to satisfactory internal consistency and promising construct validity. The LPFS BF constitutes a short, user friendly instrument that provides a quick impression of the severity of personality pathology, specifically oriented to the DSM 5 model. Clearly, more research is needed to test its validity and clinical utility.
Personality disorders