Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T08:00:43.821Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Social Functioning Scale the Development and Validation of a New Scale of Social Adjustment for use in Family Intervention Programmes with Schizophrenic Patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Max Birchwood*
Affiliation:
District Psychology Department, All Saints' Hospital, Lodge Road, Winson Green, Birmingham B18 5SD
Jo Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Barnsley Hall Hospital, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire
Ray Cochrane
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT
Sheila Wetton
Affiliation:
District Psychology Department, All Saints' Hospital, Lodge Road, Winson Green, Birmingham B18 5SD
Sonja Copestake
Affiliation:
District Psychology Department, All Saints' Hospital, Lodge Road, Winson Green, Birmingham B18 5SD
*
Correspondence

Abstract

Social functioning as an outcome variable in family interventions with schizophrenic patients has been a relatively neglected area. The requirements of a scale of social functioning to measure the efficacy of family interventions include: the measurement of skill/behaviour relevant to the impairments and the demography of this group; the ability to yield considerable information with an economy of clinical time; and the establishment of ‘comparative’ need through comparison between subscales and with appropriate reference groups. Results from three samples show that the Social Functioning Scale is reliable, valid, sensitive and responsive to change.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn, revised) (DSM–III–R). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Barrowclough, C. & Tarrier, N. (1990) The effects of expressed emotion and family intervention on the social functioning of schizophrenic patients. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology (in press).Google Scholar
Bellack, A. S., Morrison, R. L., Wixted, J. T., et al (1990) An analysis of social competence in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birchwood, M. J. (1983) Family Coping Behaviour and the Course of Schizophrenia. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Birmingham.Google Scholar
Birchwood, M. J. & Smith, J. (1987) Schizophrenia and the family. In Coping with Disorder in the Family (ed. J. Orford). Beckenham: Croom-Helm.Google Scholar
Birchwood, M. J. & Smith, J., MacMillan, F., et al (1989) Predicting relapse in schizophrenia: the development and implementation of an early signs monitoring system using patients and families as observers. Psychological Medicine, 19, 649656.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birchwood, M. J. & Smith, J., (1990) Specific and non-specific effects of educational intervention with families of schizophrenic patients: a comparison of three methods. In submission.Google Scholar
Bradshaw, J. (1972) A taxonomy of social need. In Problems and Progress in Medical Care, 7th series (ed. G. McLachlan), pp. 7182. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brewin, C. R., Wing, J. K., Mangen, S. P., et al (1987) Principles and practice of measuring needs in the long-term mentally ill: the MRC ‘Needs for Care’ assessment. Psychological Medicine, 17, 971981.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W., Birley, J. L. T. & Wing, J. K. (1972) Influence of family life on the course of schizophrenic disorders: a replication. British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 241258.Google Scholar
Cochrane, R. (1980) A comparative evaluation of the symptom rating test and the Langner 22-item index for use in epidemiological surveys. Psychological Medicine, 10, 115124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Falloon, I. R. H., Boyd, J. L. & McGill, C. N. (1984) Family Care of Schizophrenia. New York: Guildford Press. Guttman, L. (1945) A basis for analysing test–retest reliability. Psychometrica, 10, 255–282.Google Scholar
Harman, H. H. (1967) Modern Factor Analysis. Chicago: University Press.Google Scholar
Hogarty, G. E., Schooler, N. R., Ulrich, R., et al (1979) Fluphenazine and social therapy in the after care of schizophrenic patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 12831294.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paul, G. L. & Lentz, R. J. (1977) Psychological Treatment of Chronic Mental Patients: Milieu versus Social-Learning Programs. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Platt, S., Weyman, A., Hirsch, S., et al (1980) The social behaviour assessment schedule (SBAS). Social Psychiatry, 15, 4355.Google Scholar
Shepherd, M., Watt, D., Falloon, I., et al (1989) The natural history of schizophrenia: a five year follow-up study of outcome and prediction in a representative sample of schizophrenics. Psychological Medicine (monograph suppl. 15).Google Scholar
Smith, J. & Birchwood, M. (1987) Specific and non-specific effects of educational intervention with families living with a schizophrenic relative. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 645652.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, J. & Birchwood, M. (1990) Relatives and patients as partners in the management of schizophrenia: the development of a service model. British Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 654660.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, J., Birchwood, M. & Haddrell, A. (1990) Challenging schizophrenic patients construction and understanding of their illness: the effect of level of persisting symptomatology. In submission.Google Scholar
Stein, L. I. & Test, M. (1980) Alternatives to mental hospital treatment. 1. Conceptual model, treatment program and clinical evaluation. Archives of General Psychiatry, 37, 392397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strauss, J. & Carpenter, W. T. (1977) The prediction of outcome in schizophrenia III: five year outcome and its predictors. Archives of General Psychiatry, 34, 159163.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sturt, E. & Wykes, T. (1986) The measurement of social behaviour in psychiatric patients: an assessment of the reliability and validity of the SBS schedule. British Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 111.Google Scholar
Tarrier, N., Barrowclough, C., Vaughn, C., et al (1988) The community management of schizophrenia: a controlled trial of behavioural interventions with families to reduce relapse. British Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 532542.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weissman, M. M. (1975) The assessment of social adjustment: review of techniques. Archives General Psychiatry, 32, 357365.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weissman, M. M. (1981) The assessment of social adjustment: an update. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 12501258.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wing, J. & Brown, G. N. (1970) Institutionalism and Schizophrenia. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wing, J., Brown, G. N. Cooper, J. & Sartorius, N. (1974) The Description and Classification of Psychiatric Symptomatology: An Instruction Manual for the PSE and CATEGO. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1979) Schizophrenia: An International Follow-Up Study. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1980) International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps. Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.