Background: Likert-type scales are increasingly being used among people with intellectual disability (ID). These scales offer an efficient method for capturing a wide range of variance in self-reported attitudes and behaviours. This review is an attempt to evaluate the reliability and validity of Likert-type scales in people with ID. Methods:…

Researchers sometimes need a statistical test of the hypothesis that two values of Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient are equal. The situation may involve scores from two different measures administered to independent random samples or from the same measure administered to random samples from two different populations. Feldt derived a test…

This study examined the validity of Geriatric Depression Scale--5 (GDS-5) scores among older sedentary adults based on its structural properties and relationship with external criteria. Participants from two samples (Ns = 185 and 93; M ages = 66 and 67 years) completed baseline assessments as part of randomized controlled exercise trials.…

Background: The ComFor (Forerunners in Communication) is an instrument to explore underlying competence for augmentative communication. More specifically, it measures perception and sense-making of non-transient forms of communication at the levels of presentation and representation. The target group consists primarily of individuals with autism…

The authors investigated the predictive and incremental validity of the Early Assessment Risk List for boys (EARL-20B; Augimeri, Koegl, Webster, & Levene, 2001), a structured clinical checklist designed for the professional judgment of risk for aggressive and disruptive behaviors and risk/needs factor-based management of this risk. Seventy-six…

As we begin to apply functional assessment procedures in mainstream educational settings, there is a need to explore options for identifying behavior function that are not only effective but efficient and practical for school personnel to employ. Attempts to simplify the functional assessment process are evidenced by the development of informant…

Developed and tested a 20-item measure of work-family interface with child care providers. Confirmed five factors: general overload, conflict of family to work, spillover of family to work, spillover of work to family, and conflict of work to family. Regression lines for low, medium, and high levels of work-family interface indicated that high…

The authors examined aspects of reliability and validity of the Goode-nough-Harris Draw-A-Person Test (DAP; D. B. Harris, 1963). The participants were 115 seven- to nine-year-old students attending regular or special education schools. Three judges, with a modest degree of training similar to that found among practicing clinicians, rated the…

In low-stakes testing, the motivation levels of examinees are often a matter of concern to test givers because a lack of examinee effort represents a direct threat to the validity of the test data. This study investigated the use of response time to assess the amount of examinee effort received by individual test items. In 2 studies, it was found…

This study considered middle school mathematics teachers use of rubrics to score non-traditional tasks. A group of eighth-grade teachers attended a two-day workshop where they evaluated assessment tasks and discussed the use of an associated scoring rubric. Scored samples of student work submitted by the teachers indicated that they had difficulty…

"Background": There are very few formal language assessments aimed at the very severely neurologically impaired individual. These individuals often have multiple deficits on top of their communication impairment that demand a novel approach to assessment. The authors set out to devise a tool (PASWORD) to enable professionals in this field to…

Reliability and validity of the Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90-R) was investigated to determine if this instrument is appropriate for use with Hispanic college students. The sample (28 males, 177 females) consisted of 101 participants who identified as Anglo and 104 who identified as Hispanic (6 did not identify their ethnicity).…

Background: Assessing the quality of life (QOL) for families that include a person with a disability have recently become a major emphasis in cross-cultural QOL studies. The present study examined the reliability and validity of the Family Quality of Life Survey (FQOL) on a Spanish sample. Method and Results: The sample comprised 385 families who…

Reliance on subjective grant proposal review methods leads private philanthropies to underfund mental health programs, even when foundations have mental health focuses. This article describes a private mental health foundation's efforts to increase the objectivity of its proposal review process by developing a reliable, valid proposal rating form.…

The author explored the underlying dimensions and construct validity of the Bullying Situations Identification Instrument (BSI; Hazler, Miller, Carney, & Green, 2001) using exploratory factor analyses. Three dimensions of bullying severity were found using 251 school professionals as participants. The three factors that emerged from analyses were…