Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS): psychometric characteristics of a Spanish adaptation in a clinical population

Background: The Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS) is an instrument that can be easily applied for routine evaluation of the impact of mental disorders on patient functioning. In spite of the interest in its use, there is very little information available on its psychometric characteristics and even less in Spanish. Aims: The objective of this study was to analyse its psychometric characteristics. Method: The sample consisted of 441 patients treated in a community mental health unit. They filled out the WSAS and two psychopathology measures, one for anxiety and the other for depression. Fifty-five of them, chosen at random, were asked to fill out the scale again a second time to explore its temporal reliability. Results: The scale showed high internal consistency, a single factor that explained 60.4% of the variance, and temporal reliability of .78 for the total score. Significant correlations were found between the WSAS scores and the psychopathological measures, as well as significant differences between those working and those on leave. Conclusions: The results confirm the validity and reliability of the scale and support its possible use for routine evaluation of the functional impact of mental disorders.

Temporal Reliability of Willingness to Pay for Payments for Environmental Services: Lessons from Lombok, Indonesia

Willingness to pay (WTP) for payments for environmental services (PES) can be temporarily reliable if contingent valuation (CV) studies are embedded in an accurate survey population, yield low measurement errors, and are based on a correct assumption of no change in sociodemographic factors affecting buyer preferences. These pre-conditions are assumed in PES schemes applying temporal reliability of WTP. This study tests these conditions in CV-PES studies from 2001, 2003, and 2011 in Lombok, Indonesia, by comparing them with a new CV-PES study in 2015. Our results show that the CV-PES studies would not meet the pre-conditions due to inclusion of non-PES buyers, potential measurement errors implied by a lack of validating information and high WTP estimate, and/or failure to test the condition of no change of socio-economic factors. Results contribute to identifying pragmatic challenges and lessons for applying temporal reliability of WTP to PES implementation.