Assessment of Identity Disturbance: Factor Structure and Validation of the Personality Structure Questionnaire in an Italian Sample

摘要

here are few brief measures of identity disturbance for use in clinical udpracticeudthat have udbeen subject to any crossud-udculturally validationud. This study investigated the construct udvalidity of the Personality Structure Questionnaire (PSQ) udin Italianudclinical (N=237) and udcommunity (udN=296) samplesud. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to udinvestigate the internal structure of the PSQ. A threeud–udfactor structure (i.e., differing selfud-udstates, mood variability and behavioral loss of control) including uda secondud-udorder factor udprovided the best fit to the dataud. This structure was uddemonstrated to be invariant across udsexudand udclinical uddiagnosisud, with clinical diagnosis significantly predicting increased udPSQ udscoresud. udA gudlobal udPSQ score udof udbetween 26ud-ud28 was found to be an appropriate cut-off for udassisting in diagnostic processes. Implications for the assessment and treatment of udpsychological disorders with a marked identity disturbance component are discussed.