Family burden and care participation: A test-retest reliability study of an interview instrument concerning families with a severely mentally ill family member

AbstractIn the research on families with a severely mentally ill family member several instruments have been developed to measure family burden, relatives' need for support, and satisfaction with mental health services. However, psychometric properties such as feasibility, acceptability, sensitivity to change, validity, and reliability have rarely been reported, which is a major obstacle to further development of research in this area. As part of a study of family burden experienced in relation to both compulsory and voluntary psychiatric care, the present paper investigates several psychometric properties of an instrument developed within the framework of the study. Encouraging results with regard to the test?retest reliability of this interview schedule for families and relatives of severely mentally ill persons were found. Test? retest scores were satisfactory, showing a good stability of the instrument and indicating that changes in scores over time measure true changes in burden and participation. The acceptability and content validity of the instrument was also found satisfactory, and the conclusion is that the instrument may be an alternative for use in further studies outside the present longitudinal study.KeywordsCompulsory Care Family Burden Mentally Participation Care Reliability