AQ Properties

Reliability: Internal consistency for the entire scale is good at .88 for both client or family samples (Sherer et al, 1998a). Factor analysis (Sherer et al, 1998a) revealed three factors: cognitive, behavioral/affective, and motor/sensory functioning. Internal consistencies for the factors are adequate, given the small numbers of items, ranging from .68 to .80 for the client sample and .57 to .80 for the family sample. Test-retest reliability has not been reported.

Validity: The Awareness Questionnaire was shown to be sensitive to differences in client, family/significant other, and clinician ratings with the expected finding that persons with TBI rate themselves as less impaired than do family members or clinicians (Sherer et al, 1998c). In the same study, client vs. family/significant other differences demonstrated the expected pattern of greater impaired self-awareness of cognitive and behavioral/affective functioning as compared to motor/sensory functioning.

Criterion validity has been demonstrated as client vs. family/significant other differences and the direct clinician rating of accuracy of self-awareness have been shown to be predictive of eventual productivity outcome for persons with TBI (Sherer et al, 1998b). These two measures accounted for 31% of variance in productivity outcome in a sample of 66 persons with TBI.