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The Adult Personality Functioning Assessment (APFA): factors influencing agreement between subject and informant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

J. Hill*
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London
H. Fudge
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London
R. Harrington
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London
A. Pickles
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London
M. Rutter
Affiliation:
MRC Child Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Professor Jonathan Hill, Academic Psychiatry and Psychology, Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital, Alder Hey, Eaton Road, Liverpool L12 2AP.

Synopsis

The Adult Personality Functioning Assessment (APFA) provides ratings of interpersonal and social role performance in six domains over substantial periods of time. Ratings based on subject and informant accounts using the APFA were compared. There was good agreement for estimates of levels of dysfunction, and moderate agreement for type of dysfunction. An anticipated under-reporting of difficulties by subjects was not found. The extent of personality dysfunction was predictive of whether a close informant was available; however, closeness of informant was not consistently associated with subject–informant agreement.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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