External validity of the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire (PDSQ) in a clinical sample. (March 2018) - Perkey, Hana
Abstract: This study contributes to the convergent and discriminant validity of the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire (PDSQ) by investigating its correlations with the relevant clinical scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) and life space variables, such as relationship status, education level, job loss, and history of suicide attempts. Bivariate correlations were calculated for a sample of 254 psychiatric outpatients. The results indicated that the PDSQ scales demonstrated good to excellent convergent and discriminant validity with target scales from the PAI. They were also found to be meaningfully associated with a variety of life space variables. For example, five of the subscales and the Total Score correlated positively with a recent job loss, and eight of the subscales were negatively associated with education and/or employment status. Some incongruence with hypothesized relationships was discovered for life correlates classified as markers of psychiatric severity. Overall, these findings add to the emerging body of evidence corroborating the convergent and discriminant validity of the PDSQ. Highlights: 123 of the 168 possible correlations between the PDSQ and the PAI were significant. All matched PDSQ subscales showed strong correlations with their PAI counterparts. 11 scales and Total Score had one or more significant correlation to life variables. Predicted PDSQ subscale relationships were evident with life outcome variables. Discrepancies found in relationships of PDSQ and markers of psychiatric severity.