CONSTRUCT-VALIDITY OF THE OUTCOME QUESTIONNAIRE - A CONFIRMATORY FACTOR-ANALYSIS

Three content domains appear to be essential in the evaluation of trea tment of psychological disorders: symptomatic distress (e.g., depressi on, anxiety), interpersonal problems, and social role dysfunction. The Outcome Questionnaire (OQ) was designed to measure functioning in all three of these domains. Construct validation of the multifactor struc ture of the OQ was attempted using confirmatory factor analysis. This study failed to support the multidimensional construct system espoused by the developers of the OQ. This failure was due to high correlation s between the three content groupings and poor overall model fit. Iri general clinical applications, the three subscales developed for the O Q may still be of use to the interested clinician, but caution needs t o be used in interpreting these subscale scores; however, the use of t he OQ when using a global score composed of the sum of three subscales was supported.