[Measuring positive behaviour and experience in inpatients with mental disorders--the Hamburg Self-Care Questionnaire...

Treatments of patients with chronic mental disorders are increasingly focusing on salutogenetic aims to support human health and well-being. Up to now, standardized instruments to evaluate these treatment goals are still missing. We present results of analyses of the psychometric properties of the Hamburg Self-Care Questionnaire (HamSCQ). Besides reliability we are focusing on different aspects of validity: factor structure, concurrent validity, and sensitivity to change.

A total sample of 7 478 inpatients with mental disorders from four different psychotherapeutic clinics participated in the study. Patients completed self-rating questionnaires at admission and discharge: Besides the HamSCQ we used the Symptom Checklist SCL-14, the Short Form SF-8, the CES-D depression scale, the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems IIP-25 and the AVEM.

The two-dimensional structure of the HamSCQ with the two subscales PACING and POSITIVE EXPERIENCE could be replicated by means of both principal component and confirmatory factor analysis. The two scales correlate with r=0.56. Both scales show a high internal consistency (alpha >or=0.90), they correlate with the selected measures of concurrent validity (except the AVEM scales) with medium (Pacing) or high (Positive Experience) effect sizes, and their mean scores differ significantly from admission to discharge with large effect sizes.

The HamSCQ proves to be a reliable questionnaire, which is also sensitive to change. The two-dimensional factor structure could be replicated, and some aspects of concurrent validity could be demonstrated, but concerning criterion validity further research is still necessary. Thus we recommend the use of the HamSCQ for inpatients with mental disorders treated in psychotherapeutic/rehabilitative clinics.