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Construct Validity of the Mentalization Scale (MentS) Within a Mixed Psychiatric Sample

Introduction: The concept of mentalizing is nowadays widely used in research as well as in clinical practice. Despite its popularity, the development of an economic assessment is still challenging. The Mentalization Scale appears to be a promising measurement with good psychometric properties but la...

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Autores principales: Richter, Felix, Steinmair, Dagmar, Löffler-Stastka, Henriette
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8210847/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34149501
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.608214
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author Richter, Felix
Steinmair, Dagmar
Löffler-Stastka, Henriette
author_facet Richter, Felix
Steinmair, Dagmar
Löffler-Stastka, Henriette
author_sort Richter, Felix
collection PubMed
description Introduction: The concept of mentalizing is nowadays widely used in research as well as in clinical practice. Despite its popularity, the development of an economic assessment is still challenging. The Mentalization Scale appears to be a promising measurement with good psychometric properties but lacking convergent validity with the Reflective Functioning Scale. Objective: This study aims to test the construct validity of the Mentalization Scale through correlations with the gold standard, the Reflective Functioning Scale, within a clinical sample. Furthermore, it was of interest to replicate its internal consistency. Methods: Twenty-six inpatients of an acute psychiatric ward in Vienna were given the Mentalization Scale (MentS). They were interviewed with the Brief Reflective Function Interview, which was coded with the Reflective Functioning Scale. Correlations and internal consistency were calculated. Results: Concerning the primary aim of this study, the validity was satisfactory for the MentS whole-scale mentalizing as well as for the subscales self- and other-oriented mentalizing. Internal consistency was lower to the findings of the developer and close to the 0.70 threshold. Conclusion: Our findings could foster the psychometric properties of the MentS. Furthermore, the MentS seems to be a promising measurement tool for detecting different dimensions of reflective functioning. Limitations and further research are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-82108472021-06-18 Construct Validity of the Mentalization Scale (MentS) Within a Mixed Psychiatric Sample Richter, Felix Steinmair, Dagmar Löffler-Stastka, Henriette Front Psychol Psychology Introduction: The concept of mentalizing is nowadays widely used in research as well as in clinical practice. Despite its popularity, the development of an economic assessment is still challenging. The Mentalization Scale appears to be a promising measurement with good psychometric properties but lacking convergent validity with the Reflective Functioning Scale. Objective: This study aims to test the construct validity of the Mentalization Scale through correlations with the gold standard, the Reflective Functioning Scale, within a clinical sample. Furthermore, it was of interest to replicate its internal consistency. Methods: Twenty-six inpatients of an acute psychiatric ward in Vienna were given the Mentalization Scale (MentS). They were interviewed with the Brief Reflective Function Interview, which was coded with the Reflective Functioning Scale. Correlations and internal consistency were calculated. Results: Concerning the primary aim of this study, the validity was satisfactory for the MentS whole-scale mentalizing as well as for the subscales self- and other-oriented mentalizing. Internal consistency was lower to the findings of the developer and close to the 0.70 threshold. Conclusion: Our findings could foster the psychometric properties of the MentS. Furthermore, the MentS seems to be a promising measurement tool for detecting different dimensions of reflective functioning. Limitations and further research are discussed. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-05-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8210847/ /pubmed/34149501 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.608214 Text en Copyright © 2021 Richter, Steinmair and Löffler-Stastka. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Richter, Felix
Steinmair, Dagmar
Löffler-Stastka, Henriette
Construct Validity of the Mentalization Scale (MentS) Within a Mixed Psychiatric Sample
title Construct Validity of the Mentalization Scale (MentS) Within a Mixed Psychiatric Sample
title_full Construct Validity of the Mentalization Scale (MentS) Within a Mixed Psychiatric Sample
title_fullStr Construct Validity of the Mentalization Scale (MentS) Within a Mixed Psychiatric Sample
title_full_unstemmed Construct Validity of the Mentalization Scale (MentS) Within a Mixed Psychiatric Sample
title_short Construct Validity of the Mentalization Scale (MentS) Within a Mixed Psychiatric Sample
title_sort construct validity of the mentalization scale (ments) within a mixed psychiatric sample
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8210847/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34149501
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.608214
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