Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy
Open Access

Abstract

Adaptation and Validation of the Standardized Assessment of Personality – Abbreviated Scale as a Self-Administered Screening Test (SA-SAPAS)

Gaëtan Merlhiot, Laurie Mondillon, Nicolas Vermeulen, Anamitra Basu and Martial Mermillod

Personality disorder assessments are time-intensive and require trained interviewers. They are unlikely to be performed on a routine basis. In clinical and general populations, there is a requirement for short and robust self-administered screening tests for personality disorders. We first translated the original form of the SAPAS into French and validated it in a clinical sample (n=28). This adaptation revealed properties similar to those of the original version. The first and second studies validated the adaptation of the SA-SAPAS as a self-administered questionnaire in clinical (n=45) and general (n=186) populations. We were able to use the same cut-off (score ≥ 2) in both the clinical and general populations and this permitted correct identification in 89% of the clinical subjects (sensitivity of 97.3%; specificity of 50%) and 86% in the general population (sensitivity of 87.5%; specificity of 85.7%). These results suggest possible applications for researchers and clinicians, either as a routine screening test or as a selection tool in both general and clinical populations.