Measuring Community Integration: Development and Psychometrics of the Community Connections and Engagement Scale

The objective of this community-based participatory research project was to develop a clinically useful, psychometrically-sound scale to measure community integration for adults with severe mental illness. Two researchers and an administrator of a behavioral health agency (BHA) recruited a group of providers, half with lived-experience of severe mental illness. Through a series of five focus groups, provider participants guided identification of four major domains of community integration and the development of 95 scale items; items and domains were reviewed by three external researchers with subject matter expertise. Initial pilot: BHA providers administered the scale to clients (n  = 51) with 19 completing it twice to investigate internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and restricted variance and collinearity of items. Further piloting: providers at two BHAs administered the scale to clients (n = 178) to conduct exploratory factor analysis and analyze interna l consistency. After initial pilot, 50 items remained post item reduction for restricted variance and collinearity, with Cronbach’s alpha of .95 and test–retest reliability of .90. After a larger pilot, a four-factor solution emerged, aligning conceptually with the four domains as anticipated; 3 3 items loaded (factor loadings ≥ .4), with RMSEA of .069 and overall Cronbach’s alpha of .89 (subdomains ranging .78–.86). The scale has good preliminary psychometric properties and appears to be...

Source: Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research - July 1, 2021 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research