Construct validity of a newly developed instrument: Profile of Occupational Engagement in people with Schizophrenia, POES

It is highly relevant to estimate to what extent a person with schizophrenia engages in occupations and participates in different life situations in order to understand the determinants of well-being in this group of people. This study aimed at examining the construct validity of the instrument Profile of Occupational Engagement in persons with Schizophrenia, POES. Global Assessment of Functioning, GAF, and a scale measuring Satisfaction with daily occupations and Activity level were chosen as standards against which POES was validated. As hypothesized, moderate associations were found between POES and GAF (0.73), Activity level (0.70), and Satisfaction with daily occupations (0.50). Regarding the separate items of POES, the items that concerned the range of occupations performed had the strongest association with Activity level, and the items that concerned ongoing occupations, i.e. Routines and Extent of performing meaningful occupations, correlated most strongly with Satisfaction with daily occupations. Thus, the strongest associations were found for the expected items. Altogether, POES seems to possess satisfactory construct validity and be a construct in its own right, as indicated by correlations of expected size and direction with the selected instruments and for expected items.