Evaluation of the home environments of 64 families of children with severe disabilities 7 and 9 years after the initial assessment found a high degree of stability, especially on the Family Environment Scale (FES). However, internal consistency reliability of the FES was lower for these families than in the standardization samples. (Contains…

The psychometric properties of the Motivation Assessment Scale were examined using 90 ratings of different problem behaviors among 86 individuals with mental retardation. Although reliability and internal consistency were generally poor, the results depended upon topographies of problem behavior and methods of calculation. The construct validity…

Eighteen adolescents and adults with severe/profound intellectual disability were rated by two staff members using the Motivation Assessment Scale to identify variables maintaining their aggressive behaviors. Analysis of interrater reliability indicated that for some individuals the scale may not represent a feasible alternative to more formal…

A study tested the psychometric properties of the Stereotyped Behavior Scale, an empirically developed behavior rating scale for adolescents and adults with mental retardation. Forty-five adults with mental retardation and various rates of stereotypies participated. Results found the scale had high rates of reliability, validity, and interrater…

This replication study found that only 16 of 55 raters agreed on the category of reinforcement maintaining a disabled individual's self-injurious behavior after using the Motivation Assessment Scale. Additionally, only 15 percent of the correlation coefficients obtained were above 80 percent, and none of the reliability scores was above 80…

This study assessed the psychometric properties of the Environmental Rating Scale, a measure specifically designed to assess residential treatment programs for individuals with autism. The measure's reliability was demonstrated by assessments of the internal consistency, stability, and interrater reliability. Preliminary analysis of validity…

Parent and teacher ratings on the Aberrant Behavior Checklist with an outpatient sample of 110 children, adolescents, and young adults with mental retardation found that the 5-factor structure of both parent and teacher data corresponded very well with the 5 factors originally obtained from staff ratings of mentally retarded inpatients. (Author/DB)

The applicability of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) (in the informant-rating version) to mentally retarded adults was evaluated with 798 individuals. Evaluation of internal consistency, interrater reliability, factor analysis, and effects of age, sex, and degree of mental retardation indicated that the CDI is suitable as a diagnostic…

To assess the psychometric characteristics of the Verbal Behavior Assessment Scale, the 15-item questionnaire was administered to pairs of caregivers of 115 individuals with developmental disabilities. Exploratory factor analysis involving 11 more participants revealed evidence concerning the distinction of three different communicative functions…

Evaluation of the factor validity and reliability of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (Japanese version) with 322 subjects (mean age 30) with moderate to profound mental retardation found most items loading on the same factors as in the original factor solution, high coefficient alphas across 5 subscales, high test-retest reliability, and…

This research assessed the psychometric properties of the Multifaceted Lifestyle Satisfaction Scale, an interview examining satisfaction of individuals with mental retardation with their living arrangements and communities, personal relationships, recreation and leisure, employment, and degree of self-direction. Based on analysis of 149 subjects,…