Application of Empowerment Scale to patients with schizophrenia: Japanese experience

Rogers et al. invented the Empowerment Scale, and conducted a factor analysis, which found five factors: self-esteem, power, activism, righteous anger and optimism. Hata et al. translated this scale into Japanese and named it Empowerment Scale-J. They found that the score of the righteous anger factor does not have a significant correlation with the overall score of the Empowerment Score-J. With the aim of clarifying the characteristics of the Empowerment Scale-J, the purpose of the present study was to assess the levels of empowerment in 72 Japanese patients with chronic schizophrenia using the scale, and examine the relationship between the results of the scale and the results of the following two batteries: Social Adjustment Scale II (SAS II), and Expanded Attributional Style Questionnaire (EASQ; a questionnaire to assess some aspects of attitude toward negative circumstances). Four results were obtained as follows. No significant correlation was found between the score of righteous anger factor and overall score. No significant correlation was found between the Empowerment Scale-J score and the degree of social adjustment. Significant correlations were found between some subscales of Empowerment Scale-J and the degree of social adjustments: self-esteem and optimism, but inverse correlations were obtained between the power factor and the righteous anger factor and the degree of social adjustment. Results for the EASQ showed that subjects with a higher righteous anger score have a tendency opposite to that of subjects with higher social adjustment. On the basis of these results it is suggested that behavior related to the righteous anger among Japanese persons with schizophrenia may have some negative influence on their social adaptation and that in applying Empowerment scale-J attention should be paid to the significance of the righteous anger factor.