The personal disturbance scale (DSSI/sAD): structural cross-validation and proposed short forms

The Personal Disturbance Scale (DSSI/sAD) is administered to 132 consecutive first attenders at a psychiatric outpatient clinic in a District General Hospital. The principal components and axis analyses of their item scores are compared with those of Bedford and Deary, 1997 [Bedford, A., and Deary, I. J. (1997). The Personal Disturbance Scale (DSSI/sAD): development, use and structure. Personality and Individual Differences, 22, 493–510.]. From the congruent results of both data bases a subset of items is presented to give brief, factorially-purer independent measures of the clinical states of anxiety and depression as opposed to one general psychological distress score. Contrariwise, indication is given as to which items scores should be summated if concern is for a global personal disturbance scale dependent on the type of client group. The Shevlin et al. (1998) [Shevlin, M., Brunsden, V., and Miles, J. N. V. (1998). Alternative factor models of the Personal Disturbance Scale (DSSI/sAD). Personality and Individual Differences, 25, 569–574.] alternative structural equation model of a single factor solution (general psychological distress) is tested and found to be inadequate when applied to these data. However, the Bedford and Deary, 1997 nested, three factor model does provide a close and acceptable fit both to this and our previous data set. The question of the balance between psychometric and clinical considerations in determining the length of scales is raised.