Department of Psychology
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Browsing Department of Psychology by Subject "adaptive behaviour"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Open Access Parent stress and adaptive functioning of individuals with developmental disabilities(Ontario Association on Developmental Disabilities, 2003-11) Weiss, Jonathan; Sullivan, April; Diamond, TerryResearch consistently indicates that parents of individuals with a developmental disability report considerably more stress associated with child characteristics than parents with typically developing children. It is commonly believed that the adaptive functioning of a child with a developmental disability plays a significant role in the stress a parent experiences. The present study examines adaptive functioning of individuals with a developmental disability, in an attempt to establish child characteristics that are predictors of parental stress. Participants consisted of a randomly selected group of 97 individuals (64 males, 33 females) with developmental disabilities, and their parents (90 mothers and 56 fathers) from across Ontario, Canada. Individuals with developmental disabilities ranged in age from 9.3 to 42.5 years, with an average age of 24.9 years (SD=8.6). The Full Scale IQ scores for participants with a developmental disability, ranged from 40 to 92, with a mean score of 53.9 (SD=12.7). Adaptive and Maladaptive Behaviour were assessed using the Adaptive Behavior Scales - Residential and Community Edition, Second Edition (Nihira, Leland & Lambert, 1993). The Parenting Stress Index, Third Edition (Abidin, 1995) was used as a measure of parental stress. The results established a relation between parental stress and adaptive behaviour of the child. Specifically, lower levels of adaptive functioning were predictive of higher levels of parental stress. The specific components of adaptive functioning that relate to parental stress are discussed.Item Open Access The GO4KIDDS Brief Adaptive Scale(Wiley, 2015-04) Perry, A; Taheri, Azin; Ting, Victoria; Weiss, JonathanBackground. Accurate measurement of adaptive behaviour is important in both clinical and research contexts. While several good clinical measures exist, as well as brief research measures for adults with ID, there is need for a brief and efficient measure for research with children and youth. We present preliminary psychometric properties of a new scale we developed for such purposes, the GO4KIDDS Brief Adaptive Behaviour Scale. Materials and Methods. A large sample (n=432) of parents of youth (aged 3 to 20) with ID and/or ASD completed an online survey that included the new scale. A subsample of these parents (n=204) also completed the Scales of Independent Behavior-Revised Short Form (Bruininks et al., 1996). Results. The new scale has good internal consistency and correlates strongly with the Scales of Independent Behavior, thus supporting its reliability and validity. Conclusions. Although we do not recommend its use for clinical purposes, the GO4KIDDS Brief Adaptive Behaviour Scale may be useful for survey research with parents of children and youth with developmental disabilities.