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. 2022 Sep;29(6):1236-1247.
doi: 10.1177/10731911211008234. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

Impaired Knowledge of Social Norms in Dementia and Psychiatric Disorders: Validation of the Social Norms Questionnaire-Dutch Version (SNQ-NL)

E van den Berg  1 , J M Poos  1 , L C Jiskoot  1   2 , B Montagne  3   4 , R P C Kessels  5   6   7 , S Franzen  1 , J van Hemmen  1 , W S Eikelboom  1 , E G C Heijboer  1 , J de Kriek  1 , A van der Vlist  1 , F J de Jong  1 , J C van Swieten  1 , H Seelaar  1 , J M Papma  1
Affiliations

Impaired Knowledge of Social Norms in Dementia and Psychiatric Disorders: Validation of the Social Norms Questionnaire-Dutch Version (SNQ-NL)

E van den Berg et al. Assessment. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

The Social Norms Questionnaire-Dutch version (SNQ-NL) measures the ability to understand and identify social boundaries. We examined the psychometric characteristics of the SNQ-NL and its ability to differentiate between patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD; n = 23), Alzheimer's dementia (AD; n = 26), chronic psychiatric disorders (n = 27), and control participants (n = 92). Between-group differences in the Total score, Break errors, and Overadhere errors were examined and associations with demographic variables and other cognitive functions were explored. Results showed that the SNQ-NL Total Score and Break errors differed between patients with AD and bvFTD, but not between patients with bvFTD and psychiatric disorders. Modest correlations with age, sex, and education were observed. The SNQ-NL Total score and Break errors correlated significantly with emotion recognition and verbal fluency but not with processing speed or mental flexibility. In conclusion, the SNQ-NL has sufficient construct validity and can be used to investigate knowledge of social norms in clinical populations.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; assessment; frontotemporal dementia; reliability; social cognition.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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