2 SCALES FOR MEASURING PATIENTS PERCEPTIONS FOR COERCION DURING MENTAL-HOSPITAL ADMISSION

Legal and extra-legal coercion are pervasive in mental hospital admiss ion and there are sharp disputes about its appropriate role. This arti cle presents two scales for measuring psychiatric patients' perception s of coercion during hospital admission and reports data on these scal es' internal consistency. We measure patients' perceptions of coercion by asking questions, in either an interview or questionnaire format, about their experience of lack of control, choice, influence, and free dom in hospital admission. Patients' responses to questions about thei r perceptions of coercion were highly internally consistent. The inter nal consistency of the scale was robust with respect to variation in s ite, instrument format, patient population, and interview procedure. C orrespondence analysis was used to construct two numerical scales of p erceived coercion.