There is currently a lack of reliable scales with which to assess the construct of family quality of life, particularly for families who have children with disabilities. The current work presents 2 ...studies, including a total of 488 families with children with disabilities, which were conducted to complete the development of a scale to assess family quality of life. The measure was refined through confirmatory factor analyses into 25 items that assess 5 domains of Family Quality of Life: Family Interaction, Parenting, Emotional Well-Being, Physical/Material Well-Being, and Disability-Related Support. Each subscale was found to be unidimensional and internally consistent. An initial examination of test-retest reliability and convergent validity is also presented. Implications for future research, scale use, and policy are discussed.
Mixed modeling was used to examine longitudinal changes in linguistic ability in healthy older adults and older adults with dementia. Language samples, vocabulary scores, and digit span scores were ...collected annually from healthy older adults and semiannually from older adults with dementia. The language samples were scored for grammatical complexity and propositional content. For the healthy group, age-related declines in grammatical complexity and propositional content were observed. The declines were most rapid in the mid 70s. For the group with dementia, grammatical complexity and propositional content also declined over time, regardless of age. Rates of decline were uniform across individuals. These analyses reveal how both grammatical complexity and propositional content are related to late-life changes in cognition in healthy older adults as well as those with dementia. Alzheimer's disease accelerates this decline, regardless of age.
Before the 1990s, research on the early identification and prevention of severe behavior disorders (SBDs), such as aggression, self-injury, and stereotyped behavior, among young children with ...intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), was mostly done with children 3 years or older. More recent work suggests that signs of SBDs may occur as early as 6 months in some infants. The present study combined a cross-sectional and longitudinal approach to examine SBDs in 180 young children aged 4-48 months recruited through mass screening, then receiving an interdisciplinary evaluation and six-month follow-ups for one year. Twelve potential risk factors related to SBDs were examined. Eight of these risk factors, including age, gender, diagnosis, intellectual and communication levels, visual impairment, parent education, family income, were differentially related to scores for Aggression, SIB, and Stereotyped Behavior subscales on the Behavior Problems Inventory (BPI-01) at initial interdisciplinary evaluation. BPI-01 scores decreased over the year for 57% of the children and increased for 43%. The amount of decrease on each BPI-01 subscale varied with age, gender, and diagnosis.
This study explored teachers' use of the Argumentation and Evaluation Intervention (AEI) and associated graphic organizer to enhance the performance of students in middle and secondary science ...classrooms. The results reported here are from the third year of a design study during which the procedures were developed in collaboration with teachers. A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design with 8 experimental and 8 control teachers was used with a total of 282 students. An open-ended test assessed students' abilities to evaluate a scientific argument made in an article. The students were asked to identify the claim and its qualifiers, identify and evaluate the evidence given for the claim, examine the reasoning in support of the claim, consider counterarguments, and construct and explain a conclusion about the claim. The quality of students' responses was assessed using a scoring rubric for each step of the argumentation process. Findings indicated a significantly higher overall score and large effect size in favor of students who were instructed using the AEI compared to students who received traditional lecture–discussion instruction. Subgroup and subscale scores are also presented. Teacher satisfaction and student satisfaction and confidence levels are reported.
► Internal consistency of the BPI-01 over 3 assessments was excellent for both frequency and severity. ► Internal consistency of the ABC total score and the subscale scores was excellent. ► Internal ...consistency of the RSB-R total score was excellent. ► Test–retest reliability for BPI-01 ranged from .68 to .77 for frequency and from .65 to .80 for severity. ► Subscale scores for SIB and stereotyped behavior decreased significantly between times 1 and 3.
Reliable and valid assessment of aberrant behaviors is essential in empirically verifying prevention and intervention for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD). Few instruments exist which assess behavior problems in infants. The current longitudinal study examined the performance of three behavior-rating scales for individuals with IDD that have been proven psychometrically sound in older populations: the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC), the Behavior Problems Inventory (BPI-01), and the Repetitive Behavior Scale – Revised (RBS-R). Data were analyzed for 180 between six and 36 months old children at risk for IDD. Internal consistency (Cronbach's α) across the subscales of the three instruments was variable. Test–retest reliability of the three BPI-01 subscales ranged from .68 to .77 for frequency ratings and from .65 to .80 for severity ratings (intraclass correlation coefficients). Using a multitrait–multimethod matrix approach high levels of convergent and discriminant validity across the three instruments was found. As anticipated, there was considerable overlap in the information produced by the three instruments; however, each behavior-rating instrument also contributed unique information. Our findings support using all three scales in conjunction if possible.
Research in multiple sclerosis often employs animal models of the disease, especially experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in rodents. The statistical analysis procedures chosen for these ...studies are often suboptimal, either because of violations of the assumptions of the procedure or because the analysis selected is inappropriate for the research question. In this paper, we discuss the types of research questions frequently asked in EAE studies and suggest appropriate and useful research designs and statistical methods that will optimize the information contained within the data. We also discuss other troublesome issues such as missing data, atypical disease profiles, and power analysis.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a question-exploration routine and an associated graphic organizer on students' ability to think about and answer complex questions. ...Participants were 116 students of diverse abilities in seven 7th grade classes. The effects of the routine were compared with the effects of a traditional lecture-discussion format using a counterbalanced design. The measure, composed of matching, multiple-choice, and short-answer questions, assessed students' knowledge and comprehension of facts, main ideas, and relationships that require higher order thinking. Overall, significant differences representing large to very large effect sizes were found between the total test scores of students in the 2 groups. Specifically, students taught using the question-exploration routine earned higher total test scores than did students taught using the lecture-discussion method. Similar differences were found for matching, multiple-choice, and short-answer items. The scores earned by subgroups of students (high achievers, average achievers, low achievers, and students with disabilities) followed the same general pattern. Students in all subgroups had more difficulty conveying main ideas in writing than in multiple-choice formats.
The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine the component reading skills of adolescent struggling readers attending urban high schools. Specifically, 11 measures of reading skills were ...administered to 345 adolescent readers to gain a research-based perspective on the reading skill profile of this population. Participants were assessed in the domains of word level, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Analysis of the results found that 61% of the struggling adolescent readers had significant deficits in all of the reading components listed above. Subgroups of struggling readers showed similar but more severe patterns. For example, students with learning disabilities scored significantly below the levels of the struggling reader group at large. In contrast, most proficient readers scored high on all measures of reading with above-average component reading skills in word level, vocabulary, and comprehension. The lowest skill area for the proficient reader group was fluency, where they scored at the average level. Implications for policy and instructional programming are discussed.
The present study examines language samples from the Nun Study. Measures of grammatical complexity and idea density were obtained from autobiographies written over a 60-year span. Participants who ...had met criteria for dementia were contrasted with those who did not. Grammatical complexity initially averaged 4.78 ( on a 0-to-7-point scale) for participants who did not meet criteria for dementia and declined .04 units per year; grammatical complexity for participants who met criteria for dementia initially averaged 3.86 and declined .03 units per year. Idea density averaged 5.35 propositions per 10 words initially for participants who did not meet criteria for dementia and declined an average of .03 units per year, whereas idea density averaged 4.34 propositions per 10 words initially for participants who met criteria for dementia and declined .02 units per year. Adult experiences, in general, did not moderate these declines.
Risperidone has shown safety and efficacy for aggressive and destructive behaviors in short-term studies. This longer-duration study includes a broad sample. Forty subjects, aged 8-56 years ...(mean=22), all with mental retardation and 36 with autism spectrum disorders participated in this 22-week crossover study, with 24 weeks of open maintenance thereafter. Of 40 subjects, 23 (57.5%) responded fully (50% decrease in Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Community Irritability subscale score), while 35 subjects (87.5%) showed a 25% decrease. Gender, mood disorder, and antiseizure medications did not alter response. Increased appetite and weight gain were common. Low dose risperidone was effective for aggressive behavior in persons with MR. More long-term studies are needed, incorporating weight control interventions.
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