Development and psychometric properties of a new brief scale for subjective personal agency (SPA-5) in people with schizophrenia

Abstract

Aims Personal agency is a variable which potentially facilitates personal recovery in people with serious mental illness. This study aimed to develop a new brief measure for subjective personal agency that can be completed by people with serious mental illness. Methods Two focus group interviews were first conducted with 11 people with schizophrenia to understand the fundamental components of subjective personal agency for people with serious mental illness living in the community. One group comprised six people with schizophrenia living in the community, while the other consisted of five people with schizophrenia working as peer-support workers. We then developed scale items through collaboration with people with schizophrenia and qualitative analysis (stage 1). A cross-sectional survey was then conducted to test the psychometric properties of the new scale among service users with schizophrenia in 18 assertive community treatment teams (stage 2). Factor validity was tested via exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). We evaluated convergent validity with the Boston University Empowerment Scale (BUES), divergent validity with the global assessment of functioning (GAF), internal consistency, and test–retest reliability. Results Seven items were included in the scale at stage 1. In stage 2, 195 participants completed this scale. EFA revealed a one-factor model with five items. CFA indicated good model fit (χ2 statistics [CMIN] = 8.445, df = 5 (CMIN/df = 1.689), p = 0.133, comparative fit index = 0.974, Tucker–Lewis fit index = 0.949, root mean square error of approximation = 0.077 and standardised root mean squared residual = 0.042). The new scale was significantly correlated with total BUES score (r = 0.526, p < 0.001), but not with GAF score. Cronbach's α for internal consistency was 0.79, and intra-class correlation coefficient for test–retest reliability was 0.70. Conclusion We developed a new, five-item Subjective Personal Agency scale (SPA-5) that can be completed by people with serious mental illness. Further studies are needed to confirm the results outside Japan.

Trait Boredom as a Lack of Agency: A Theoretical Model and a New Assessment Tool

“…Table 4 summarizes the results. As expected, results showed that the TBS was negatively associated with direct measures of agency assessed in Data Set 4, including the Sense of Agency Scale (SAS; Tapal et al, 2017), r = -.38, p < .001, and the Subjective Personal Agency Scale (Yamaguchi et al, 2020), r = -.40, p < .001. The TBS was positively related to the Avolition scale (Gerritsen et al, 2015), r = .69, p < .001, reflecting difficulties in initiating and persisting in goal-directed activities.…”

“…This five-item questionnaire measures personal agency ( Yamaguchi et al, 2020 ). Participants were asked to respond to each item on a Likert-type scale from 1 (=strongly disagree) to 5 (=strongly agree) to items such as “I have an idea of what I want to do and/or how I want to be.” Cronbach’s alpha reliability for the current study was .74.…”

“…The Subjective Personal Agency Scale, which measures one’s perception of their ability to make purposeful choices ( Yamaguchi et al, 2020 ), and the Sense of Agency Scale, which measures “individuals’ beliefs about being agents in the sense of generally experiencing control over one’s body, thought and immediate environment” ( Tapal et al, 2017 , p. 7), were both expected to have a negative association with trait boredom, such that high levels of trait boredom would be associated with lower levels of agency on these scales. The Avolition Scale ( Gerritsen et al, 2015 ) assesses the inability to initiate and persist in goal-directed activities, and we expected trait boredom to be associated with higher levels of avolition, reflecting lower levels of intentionality in Bandura’s (1997) model.…”

A German translation and validation of the sense of agency scale

“…One of them is the Sense of Agency Rating Scale ( Polito et al, 2013 ), which was however designed to measure alterations in general agency beliefs during hypnosis and thus is not suitable to assess cross-situational sense of agency. Another one is the subjective personal agency scale ( Yamaguchi et al, 2020 ), which was however designed to measure sense of agency in people with serious mental disorders, particularly in people suffering from schizophrenia. A further instrument is the sense of agency scale by Asai et al (2009) , which however is published in a Japanese written article and therefore the content of the article, containing not only the items of the scale itself, but also its specific theoretical focus and psychometric properties as well as the methodology used for questionnaire validation is not available for a broad readership.…”

The effect of the concept of individual agency on the estimation of health among different agecohorts

“…In the last decades, the understanding of health has shifted from a traditional focus on income and consumption toward a richer multidimensional approach. This shift has been strongly influenced by a body of research in the capabilities' approach, which emphasizes the role of freedom, opportunities, and agency [4,[6][7][8][9][14][15].…”