Hoarding Rating Scale-Interview: Reliability and Construct Validity in a Nonclinical Sample

The Hoarding Rating Scale-Interview (HRS-I) is a brief semi-structured interview that assesses five aspects of hoarding disorder: difficulty discarding, clutter, excessive acquisition, distress, and impairment. The aim of this study was to develop an Italian version of the HRS-I and examine its psychometric properties, in terms of reliability and construct validity. The HRS-I was administered to a sample of non-clinical adults (N= 491) along with a battery of selected self-report measures. The reliability was evaluated in terms of internal consistency. Cronbach’s alpha and corrected item-total correlations indicated satisfactory scale homogeneity. The construct validity was addressed by providing evidence of both criterion and construct validity. In this direction, the relationships between HRS-I and other measures of the same or related constructs were investigated. In line with the findings of the original study, the general pattern of results was of a stronger association for like subscales than for unlike subscales. On the whole, empirical results indicated promising psychometric properties of the HRS Italian version in a nonclinical sample. Limitations of the study and the utility of the HRS-I in clinical and research settings are discussed