Validation of the Persian Translation of the Level of Personality Functioning Scale—Self-Report (LPFS-SR): Comparison of College Students and Patients with Personality Disorders

The Levels of Personality Functioning Scale—Self-Report (LPFS-SR) is a freely available self-report instrument that corresponds directly in content to the DSM-5 Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD) Criterion A, which assesses global pathology of personality functioning. The present study translated the LPFS-SR into Persian and examined the psychometrics of the translated measure in a sample of 471 college students and 142 hospitalized patients with a diagnosed personality disorder (PD). Results indicate that the Persian translation of the LPFS-SR is highly internally consistent and concurrently valid with related indicators of personality pathology. Additionally, the LPFS-SR significantly discriminated between the college sample and clinical sample, while also demonstrating considerable incremental validity over the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR Axis II Personality Questionnaire (SCID-II-PQ) in the prediction of personality disorder diagnosis. The majority of indices supported a unidimensional structure for the LPFS-SR. Six items showed negative item-total correlations and may necessitate refinement in order to capture pathology-related content more adequately for Iranian culture. Overall, the findings of the present study support the use of the Persian translation of the LPFS-SR.