Background: The effort invested in establishing and maintaining social relationships is a key component of socialisation, yet it remains difficult to assess. Understanding the difficulties that individuals with schizophrenia experience in forming social connections through a self-reported assessment appears particularly important.
Aims: This study aimed to adapt the Social Effort and Conscientiousness Scale (SEACS) into Turkish and examine its psychometric properties in individuals with schizophrenia.
Methods: Sixty-four patients with schizophrenia and 70 healthy controls completed the SEACS-TR and related scales. Psychometric analyses included internal consistency, factor analysis, and convergent validity.
Results: SEACS-TR demonstrated good internal consistency (α = .86). Using principal component analysis, we identified a three-factor solution (social initiation, connection, conscientiousness) explaining nearly 60% of the variance. A preliminary confirmatory factor analysis conducted within the same dataset supported the three-factor model with good fit (CFI = .927). Patients scored significantly lower than controls (t = 3.844, p < .001). SEACS-TR scores correlated moderately to strongly with social functioning, anhedonia, and negative symptoms.
Conclusions: SEACS-TR is a reliable and valid tool for assessing social effort in schizophrenia and may inform personalised interventions.
Keywords: SEACS; Schizophrenia; negative symptoms; social effort; validation.
SEACS-TR is the first culturally adapted tool in Turkish to measure self-reported social effort in schizophrenia.A three-factor structure—social initiation, connection, and conscientiousness—better fits the schizophrenia sample than the original two-factor model.SEACS-TR demonstrates good internal consistency and convergent validity with anhedonia, social functioning, and motivational symptoms.The scale captures subjective social motivation, complementing clinician-rated tools focused on observable behaviour.SEACS-TR may guide individualised psychosocial and neuromodulatory interventions by identifying domains of social motivational deficits.