The VKP, a self-report instrument for DSM-III-R and ICD-10 personality disorders: construction and psychometric properties

In this paper the development of a self-report instrument, the VKP, for the assessment of criteria and diagnoses of personality disorders is described. Also a computer program was developed so that subjects can register their self-report replies at the keyboard, and for scoring and reporting. Results of 1056 subjects of which 366 were patients, showed that the prevalence of all specific DSM-III-R and ICD-10 personality disorders was much higher for patients than for normal subjects. The internal consistency for all subjects was 0.66 for DSM-III-R and 0.64 for ICD-10. Temporal stability of the self-report was investigated for 69 mental health care outpatients. Test—retest with a mean interval of 221 days (SD = 123.6; range 26–466 days), showed dimensional scale-scores to be moderately stable over time (DSM-III-R: mean r = 0.62; ICD-10: mean r = 0.56). The corresponding diagnoses according to the DSM-III-R and the ICD-10 system showed only moderate agreement.