Equivalence of the German and the French Versions of the Self-Report Symptom Inventory

Abstract

Abstract. Against the background of the growing importance of symptom validity assessment both in forensic and clinical or rehabilitation contexts, a new instrument for identifying overreporting was developed. In order to study the equivalence of the German and the French versions, we divided the item pool of the Self-Report Symptom Inventory (SRSI) into two presumably equivalent half-forms. A sample of 40 adult bilingual Swiss nationals with a mean age of 39.9 years responded honestly to one of the half-forms in German and to the other in French. In a subsequent experimental malingering condition, they were asked to simulate sequelae of a whiplash injury and to respond to the SRSI again. In both conditions, they also filled out the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS). The results showed no differences between the two language versions in both conditions. Classification accuracy was very high (100% specificity, 90% sensitivity for the standard cutoff score). Reliability estimates were 0.93 for endorsement of genuine symptoms and 0.97 for pseudosymptom endorsement. In the malingering condition, the correlation between the number of reported pseudosymptoms and the SIMS scores was 0.69. The current results add to the database available for the SRSI and support the appropriateness of the French version.

The Self-Report Symptom Inventory as an Instrument for Detecting Symptom Over-Reporting

“…They found a generally low endorsement of pseudosymptoms among patients, whereas genuine symptoms were endorsed at moderate levels. This study, together with other research (e.g., Giger & Merten, 2019) suggests that the pseudosymptom scale of the SRSI is not sensitive to real psychopathology.…”

“…Thus, English, Dutch, Norwegian, French, Portuguese, and Russian adaptations of the SRSI are currently available. Giger and Merten (2019) found no systematic differences between the French and German SRSI in a sample of Swiss bilingual respondents, neither in an honest condition nor in an experimental simulation design.…”

“…This nuances the apparent sensitivity of the SRSI to real psychopathology. Germane to this, recent studies have concluded that patients with serious psychopathology seldomly attain SRSI pseudosymptom scores above the cut-off (Giger & Merten, 2019; van Helvoort et al, 2019).…”

The detection of malingering in whiplash-related injuries: a targeted literature review of the available strategies

“…Given the variability and subjectivity that characterise WADs, this may represent a serious issue [16]. Moreover, the literature suggests that, in contrast to Englishspeaking countries, there is a remarkable lack of adequate tools to examine symptom simulation in non-Anglophone countries [73]. This may represent an important point, given the various country-level rates of whiplash-related injury claimants [2]; thus, self-reported questionnaires need to be validated, linguistically and culturally, for use in other countries to allow a realistic representation of the presence of malingering in whiplash-related injury reports.…”

“…Self-Report Symptom Inventory (SRSI) and Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS) In their article validating the French version of the SRSI [72], a standalone self-report questionnaire made up of 107 items to test symptom validity, credibility, and overreporting, Giger and Merten (2019) [73] asked healthy subjects to fill out the SRSI and the SIMS [74], first in an honest condition, and then faking symptoms after a whiplash accident. The SIMS is a self-report questionnaire conceived to detect malingering of psychiatric symptoms as well as symptoms of cognitive impairment [74].…”