TY - JOUR
T1 - The Mental Vulnerability Questionnaire: a psychometric evaluation
AU - Eplov, Lene Falgaard
AU - Petersen, Janne
AU - Jørgensen, Torben
AU - Johansen, Christoffer
AU - Birket-Smith, Morten
AU - Lyngberg, Ann Christine
AU - Mortensen, Erik Lykke
N1 - © 2010 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology © 2010 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations.
PY - 2010/12
Y1 - 2010/12
N2 - The Mental Vulnerability Questionnaire was originally a 22 item scale, later reduced to a 12 item scale. In population studies the 12 item scale has been a significant predictor of health and illness. The scale has not been psychometrically evaluated for more than 30 years, and the aim of the present study was both to evaluate the psychometric properties of the 22 and 12 item scales and of three new scales. The main study sample was a community sample comprising more than 6,000 men and women. In this sample the coefficients of homogeneity were all over 0.30 for the three new scales, but below 0.30 for the 12 and the 22 item scales. All five Mental Vulnerability scales had positively skewed score distributions which were associated significantly with both SCL-90-R symptom scores and NEO-PI-R personality scales (primarily Neuroticism and Extraversion). Coefficient alpha was highest for the 22 and 12 item scales, and the two scales also showed the highest long-term stability. The three new scales reflect relatively independent dimensions of Psychosomatic Symptoms, Mental Symptoms, and Interpersonal Problems, but because of reliability problems it remains an open question whether they will prove useful as predictors of health and morbidity.
AB - The Mental Vulnerability Questionnaire was originally a 22 item scale, later reduced to a 12 item scale. In population studies the 12 item scale has been a significant predictor of health and illness. The scale has not been psychometrically evaluated for more than 30 years, and the aim of the present study was both to evaluate the psychometric properties of the 22 and 12 item scales and of three new scales. The main study sample was a community sample comprising more than 6,000 men and women. In this sample the coefficients of homogeneity were all over 0.30 for the three new scales, but below 0.30 for the 12 and the 22 item scales. All five Mental Vulnerability scales had positively skewed score distributions which were associated significantly with both SCL-90-R symptom scores and NEO-PI-R personality scales (primarily Neuroticism and Extraversion). Coefficient alpha was highest for the 22 and 12 item scales, and the two scales also showed the highest long-term stability. The three new scales reflect relatively independent dimensions of Psychosomatic Symptoms, Mental Symptoms, and Interpersonal Problems, but because of reliability problems it remains an open question whether they will prove useful as predictors of health and morbidity.
U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2010.00834.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2010.00834.x
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 20642738
VL - 51
SP - 548
EP - 554
JO - Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
JF - Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
SN - 0036-5564
IS - 6
ER -