Development and validation of Vellore Assessment of Social Performance among clients with chronic mental illness

Background: Social skills deficits are hallmark symptoms of chronic mental illness. The absence of a culturally sensitive instrument to measure social skills in the Indian population demands the need to develop and standardize such instruments. Aim: The aim of this study was to develop and validate a context-specific, culturally relevant, and performance-based assessment scale for social performance. Materials and Methods: An expert committee of mental health professionals reviewed existing literature, identified standardized scales, examined items for cultural relevance, and identified possible issues for measurement. The items were categorized into 5 domains with a 7-point scale. The instrument was initially piloted on 10 participants, then among 101 consecutive clients with chronic mental illness between 18 and 60 years of age who provided written informed consent. They were assessed by two therapists to evaluate inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability. They were also assessed on the Social Interaction and Communication Skills Checklist (SICSC) to evaluate convergent validity and on the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) to assess divergent validity. Standard statistical tests were used to study its characteristics. Results: The scale had good inter-rater reliability (0.941; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.914, 0.960) and test-retest reliability (0.928; 95% CI: 0.810, 0.965). The correlation between total score of Vellore Assessment of Social Performance (VASP) and SICSC (Pearson's correlation coefficient = 0.696; P = 0.001) suggested moderate convergent validity. The correlation between total score of VASP and GHQ-12 (Pearson's correlation coefficient = -0.046; P = 0.648) implied good divergent validity. Conclusion: VASP seems to be a promising scale to assess social performance in people with mental illness.