Scale Analysis

The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-53) was developed by Derogatis and Spencer in 1982. It is a self-report instrument designed to assess psychological symptoms. The BSI-53 is essentially the short form of the SCL-90-R, a self-report scale developed and used in a wide variety of applications.

Purpose of the Scale

The Brief Symptom Inventory was created to assess the psychological symptoms of psychiatric and clinical patients, as though they were not actually patients. The questionnaire covers 9 dimensions: Somatization, Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms, Interpersonal Sensitivity, Depression, Anxiety, Hostility, Phobic Anxiety, Paranoid Ideation, and Psychoticism. It also includes three global indicators of risk: the Global Severity Index, the Positive Symptom Distress Index, and the Positive Symptom Index. These global indicators measure symptomatology, the intensity of symptoms, and the number of reported symptoms, respectively.

Scoring of the Questions

Participants are asked to answer based on how much the given statement bothered them in the past week. The questionnaire consists of 53 questions, and participants are asked to respond using a Likert 5-point scale ranging from 0 (Not at all) to 5 (Very much). Participants can also choose “R” (Refuse to answer), but this is not recommended for better result evaluation. The questionnaire takes 8-12 minutes to complete. The questions are divided as follows: Somatization: Questions 2, 7, 23, 29, 30, 33, 37. Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms: Questions 5, 15, 26, 27, 32, 36. Interpersonal Sensitivity: Questions 20, 21, 22, 42. Anxiety: Questions 1, 12, 19, 38, 45, 49. Depression: Questions 9, 16, 17, 18, 35, 50. Hostility: Questions 6, 13, 40, 41, 46. Phobic Anxiety: Questions 8, 28, 31, 43, 47. Paranoid Ideation: Questions 4, 10, 24, 48, 51. Psychoticism: Questions 3, 14, 34, 44, 53. Questions 2, 25, 39, and 52 are not part of any subscale but are included in the general total.

Statistical Analysis

Each subscale provides a score by summing the scores of each question. The total score is calculated by adding the scores of the subscales and the questions 2, 25, 39, and 52. Therefore, the range of the total score is from 0 to 212. Higher scores indicate a higher level of disturbance from psychological symptoms and generally more psychological distress for the individual.

Validity and Reliability

The scale has been adapted into Greek by Loutsiou et al. and has been translated using the process of reverse independent translation. The scale demonstrates good psychometric properties. All subscales showed good internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha ranging from 0.71 to 0.85. Additionally, the test-retest reliability is acceptable, with values ranging from 0.68 to 0.91.

References

L. R. Derogatis & P. M. Spencer (1982)
A. Loutsiou, G. Panayiotou, & C. M. Kokkinos (2008)

Tags: Clinical Psychology

For support in research with this scale, protocol creation, data collection, and result analysis, you can contact Datanalysis.