Thesis advisor: Thomas O'Hare / The Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale 24 (BASIS-24) is a psychiatric outcome measure used for inpatient and outpatient populations. This 24-item measure comprises six subscales: depression/functioning; interpersonal relationships; self-harm; emotional lability; psychosis; and substance abuse. Earlier studies examined the reliability and validity of the BASIS-24, but none empirically examined its factor structure across gender. The purpose of this study was therefore to assess the construct validity of the BASIS-24 six-factor model and find evidence of configural, metric, strong and strict factorial invariance across gender. The sample consisted of 1398 psychiatric inpatients that completed BASIS-24 at admission and discharge at 11 facilities nation-wide. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to test measurement invariance of the BASIS-24 six-factor model across males and females. The single confirmatory factor analysis showed the original six-factor model of BASIS-24 provided an acceptable fit to the male sample at admission (RMSEA=0.058, SRMR=0.070, CFI=0.975, NNFI=0.971 and GFI=0.977) and at discharge (RMSEA=0.059, SRMR=0 .078, CFI=0.977, NNFI=0.972, and GFI=0.969). The goodness-of-fit indices for the female group at admission (RMSEA=0.055, SRMR=0.067, CFI=0.980, NNFI=0.976, and GFI=0.983), and at discharge (RMSEA=0.055, SRMR=0.079, CFI=0.98, NNFI=0.977, and GFI=0.971) also revealed that the six factor model fit reasonably well to the data. The goodness-of-fit indices between the unconstrained and constrained models showed that all four multi-group models were equivalent for both male and female samples at admission and discharge in terms of goodness-of-fit examined through the &#916;CFI and that all of them show an acceptable fit to the data. The decrease in CFI was <0.008 for admission sample and <0.003 for discharge sample and both fell below the 0.01 cut-off. This indicates that the configural, metric, as well as the strong and strict factorial invariance of BASIS-24 exist across males and females. The two important contributions of the present study are: 1) BASIS-24 can be used as a reliable and valid symptom measurement tool in assessing psychiatric inpatient populations which can compare quantitative differences in the magnitude of patient symptoms and functioning across genders; 2) the current study provides an example of useful statistical methodology for examining specific questions related to factorial invariance of the BASIS-24 instrument across gender. Implications of social work practice and research are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.

Text in English / The ‘doing’ of gender in our society is constructed along the lines of power, knowledge and being. Power structures angle knowledge and understanding of transgender people and transgender lives in a way that relegates them almost to the museum to be observed as a spectacle or exotic objects. The emphatic frames of man and woman, even in South Africa where the Constitution is considered and understood to be liberal and generous, the life of a transgender body is an Other life. One is either male or female; any other form of doing and being gender suffers peripherisation and classification as special, different, strange or any other exteriorising definitions. This dissertation attempts to question the power or the tyranny of categorisations and classifications of man and woman, drawing from various discourses such as the medico-legal discourse classification. It further looks at how gender is being performed by transgender people. Further it aimed at gaining an in-depth understanding of the experiences and challenges of transgender people with regards to doing gender within a gendered society. The findings within the dissertation tells us, that the performativity of gender is not a neutral space, but enacted by various power structures and those who live outside the norms such as the transgender people, they are subjected to precariousness. It this dissertation seeks to contribute to an unmasking of some easy but harmful assumptions about gender and sexuality. Gender and sexuality may not be taken for granted and assumed according to fixed templates but they are fluid, mobile and flexible beyond the limits of convention. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology (Research Consultation))