The relationship among three measures of social functioning in outpatientswith schizophrenia

Deficits in social functioning are a defining characteristic of schizophren ia. Several instruments have been developed to measure social functioning i n this population, but there has been little study of the correlation among different instruments. We used the Social Functioning Scale (SFS), the Mul tnomah Community Ability Scale (MCAS), and the Quality of Life Interview (Q OLI) to evaluate 72 stable outpatients with schizophrenia. Results of canon ical analyses indicate a significant but limited relationship between each set of measures. The largest overlap was between the QOLI and the SFS(R-c(2 ) = .597) with less shared variance found between the SFS and the MCAS (R-c (2) = .520) and between the MCAS and the QOLI (R-c(2) = .335). Although the instruments share some common content, the instruments measure different a spects of social functioning. A consensus is needed about how to define and measure social functioning in this population. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons. Inc.