Psychometrics of the Chinese Version of the Structured Interview of Personality Organization (STIPO-CH)

Background: The psychodynamic concept of personality organization was originally proposed by Kernberg that measures personality pathology from a dimensional approach, which can be evaluated by the Structured Interview of Personality Organization (STIPO) from six domains (i.e., Identity, Object Relations, Primitive Defenses, Coping vs Rigidity, Aggression, and Moral Values). The present study developed and revised the Chinese version of STIPO (STIPO-CH) and evaluated its psychometrics. Methods STIPO-CH was administered to 49 participants from a community sample. They also completed the Chinese version of the Inventory of Personality Organization and The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory to evaluate criterion-related reliability. An exploratory factor analysis was carried out to explore the structure of STIPO-CH and its internal consistency. Interrater reliability was assessed with intraclass correlations. Results Interrater reliability (intraclass correlations) ranged from 0.98 to 0.99. After deleting 22 items, results suggested acceptable to good internal consistency for Identity, Object Relations, and Moral Values. Correlations between STIPO-CH domains and self-report questionnaires indicated acceptable to good construct validity and criterion-related validity. Conclusions Overall, STIPO-CH demonstrates promising psychometrics to be applied in research and clinical settings. Future research is recommended since this research may be limited by the size and variability of the sample.