Assessing levels of adaptive functioning: the Role Functioning Scale

This paper reports data on reliability and validity of the Role Functioning Scale (RFS) a measure of level of functioning of adults in four domains. Psychometric properties were tested on an inner city sample of 112 psychiatrically disturbed and well, predominantly African-American, low-income mothers of young children. The RFS has good interitem, test-retest, and interrater reliability. The four scales and global RFS Index discriminated accurately between well and disturbed subjects. The Global RFS Index was significantly correlated with self-esteem and degree of disturbance. Individual scales demonstrated predicted relationships with quality of child-rearing and other independent behavioral indices. Results are discussed in terms of the unique information provided by the RFS and its potential contribution to treatment planning.