Detecting over-reporting of symptoms: the French version of the self-report symptom inventory

[en] Objective: Symptom exaggeration and malingering are core issues in forensic and clinical evaluation. Generally, experts use two main types of instruments to assess the credibility of symptoms: performance validity tests that aim to detect underperformance and self-report validity tests that appraise over-reporting of symptoms. However, while many tools can be used to assess underperformance, far fewer instruments are available to evaluate over-reporting of symptoms. Methods: In this study, we adapted the Self-Report Symptom Inventory (SRSI) for use with French-speaking participants and tested its psychometric properties on a sample of 575 healthy adults (aged from 18 to 65 years), alongside various smaller subgroups. Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a two-factor structure for the scale, with a first factor including items questioning genuine symptoms and a second factor including items questioning bizarre or rare symptoms (i.e., pseudosymptoms). Additional analyses emphasized the SRSI’s excellent internal reliability and good convergent validity. Furthermore, our results revealed that both the symptom and pseudosymptom subscales were able to discriminate between participants who were asked to feign cognitive impairments (i.e., malingerers), healthy controls, and patients with genuine cognitive symptoms. Conclusion: Overall, these results suggest that the SRSI may be considered a promising tool to assess the credibility of symptoms in patients evaluated in forensic contexts.

Disciplines :

Treatment & clinical psychology

Author, co-author :

Geurten, Marie ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie > Neuroimagerie des troubles de la mémoire et revalid. cogn.

Meulemans, Thierry ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie > Neuropsychologie

Seron, Xavier

Language :

English

Title :

Detecting over-reporting of symptoms: the French version of the self-report symptom inventory

Publication date :

2018

Journal title :

Clinical Neuropsychologist

ISSN :

1385-4046

eISSN :

1744-4144

Publisher :

Taylor & Francis, United Kingdom

Volume :

Pages :

164-181

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 15 February 2019

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