THE PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF A BRIEF SCALE FOR ASSESSING CHALLENGING BEHAVIOR

This paper describes the psychometric properties of a 15-item rating s cale for the assessment of challenging behaviour exhihited by people w ith learning disabilities. Item selection was guided by the factor str ucture of the Aberrant Behaviour Checklist (Aman & Singh, 1986). Facto r analysis of the new scale gives a 4 factor structure. The factors ar e labelled; Impulsive and Aggressive Behaviour, Passive Behaviour and Lethargy, Stereotypic and Self-injurious Behaviour and Active Social A voidance. The scale has high internal reliability and moderate inter-r ater reliability. Whether ratings were made on severity or frequency o f behaviour made little difference to the inter-rater reliability. It is suggested that the scale may be useful in large scale surveys such as take place in the construction of population registers.