OBJECTIVE Testamentary capacity (TC) is a legal construct, which concerns a person's mental capacity to make or amend a will. Although expert clinicians are frequently asked to assess TC in forensic settings, there are few instruments and little empirical research to inform and guide their assessments. The present study describes the development and psychometric properties of a standardized assessment measure of TC (Testamentary Capacity Instrument-TCI), and investigates its reliability and validity. METHODS The TCI is an interview-based, psychometric measure, which assesses a testator's knowledge of four conceptual elements, which together comprise the legal basis for TC in the Anglo-American legal system: (1) what a will is, (2) nature and extent of assets/property, (3) possible heirs/claimants to property, and (4) plan to distribute assets to heirs after death. Cronbach's alpha and percentage exact agreement were used to examine TCI element reliabilities. Using independent samples t-tests, MANOVA and MANCOVA, we investigated validity by comparing TCI element performance of cognitively intact older adults (n = 22) and older adults with ad dementia (n = 20). RESULTS The TCI elements showed good internal consistency and good inter-rater reliability. The ad group performed significantly below the control group on all four TCI elements, with effect sizes exceeding 1.2, suggesting that the TCI has content and construct validity. CONCLUSIONS Relative to cognitively intact older adults, older adults with ad dementia showed significant impairment on all four TCI conceptual elements. The TCI has promise as a standardized quantitative measure of TC to support clinical assessment of TC in forensic settings.

中文翻译：

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评估老年人的遗嘱能力：标准化访谈工具的描述和初步验证。

目标 遗嘱能力 (TC) 是一种法律结构，涉及一个人制定或修改遗嘱的心智能力。尽管专家临床医生经常被要求在法医环境中评估 TC，但很少有工具和实证研究可以为他们的评估提供信息和指导。本研究描述了 TC（Testamentary Capacity Instrument-TCI）标准化评估措施的发展和心理测量特性，并调查了其可靠性和有效性。方法 TCI 是一种基于访谈的心理测量方法，它评估立遗嘱人对四个概念要素的了解，这些要素共同构成英美法律体系中 TC 的法律基础：(1) 遗嘱是什么，(2) 性质以及资产/财产的范围，(3) 可能的财产继承人/索赔人，（四）拟在死后向继承人分配财产。Cronbach 的 alpha 和百分比精确协议用于检查 TCI 元素的可靠性。我们使用独立样本 t 检验、MANOVA 和 MANCOVA，通过比较认知完整的老年人 (n = 22) 和患有广告性痴呆的老年人 (n = 20) 的 TCI 元素表现来调查有效性。结果 TCI 要素表现出良好的内部一致性和良好的评分者间信度。广告组在所有四个 TCI 元素上的表现都明显低于对照组，效果大小超过 1.2，表明 TCI 具有内容和结构有效性。结论 相对于认知完整的老年人，患有广告性痴呆的老年人在所有四个 TCI 概念要素上都表现出明显的损伤。