The Life Skills Profile: a study of its psychometric properties

Two hundred patients with severe mental illness of mixed type were assessed by treating mental health professionals a total of 730 times with the Life Skills Profile (LSP). Confirmatory factor analyses broadly confirmed the existence of the Self-care and Non-turbulence subscales. Internal consistencies were generally good but inter-rater reliabilities were of only marginal acceptability. The fit of the data to the five subscales can be improved by reassigning two items. The Communication subscale had the poorest psychometric properties. Certain LSP scale scores were found to vary with how well and how long the rater had known the patient. Validity, which was assessed by relating LSP scores to locus of care (i.e. community or hospital), Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) ratings and Resource Associated Functional Level Scale (RAFLS) ratings, was good. An alternative scoring system yielded rather clearer meaning for some of the subscales.