VALIDATION OF THE GEOPTE SCALE OF SOCIAL COGNITION FOR PSYCHOSIS IN PATIENTS DIAGNOSED WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA IN LATIN AMERICA¹

The purpose of this study was to validate the GEOPTE scale of social cognition for its use in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia in Latin American countries. The participants were 253 patients with a diagnosis of Schizophrenia and 253 main caregivers from mental health services in Bolivia, Chile and Peru. The psychometric properties of the GEOPTE scale were obtained through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), CFA-multigroup, reliability coefficients and Pearson's correlation. The CFA showed the adequacy between the original theoretical factor structure and the one established in this validation study. The scale showed satisfactory reliability indicators, presented significant associations with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and showed only weak invariance according to gender. The GEOPTE scale has sufficient evidence of validity and reliability for its use in patients diagnosed with Schizophrenia in Latin American countries.