The development of a measure of motivational changes following acquired brain injury

Motivational deficits following acquired brain injury have been found to be both prevalent and particularly disabling. Despite this, relatively little attention has been given to such deficits. The development of self and informant versions of a new questionnaire measure of the changes in motivation that may occur following acquired brain injury is described. The measure demonstrates excellent psychometric properties including high test-retest (r=.90) and split-half reliability (.94), high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=.94), and good concurrent validity. The study also demonstrates that the questionnaire is measuring a different domain to cognitive tests and tests of affect, but one that is predictive of brain injury outcome. There was moderate overlap between self-report and relative versions of the questionnaire (r=.41) but results suggest that the relative version has the stronger predictive value. The potential uses of the measure in relation to theory and practice are discussed.