PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES AND NORMATIVE DATA FOR THE PARENT VERSION OF THE DIABETES INDEPENDENCE SURVEY

The parent version of the Diabetes Independence Survey measures parent s' perceptions of their children's mastery of 38 diabetes self-care sk ills. The instrument was administered to 648 parents of 622 children w ith insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, ages 3 and 18 yeats, at seven different pediatric medical centers. Data confirming the infernal con sistency, interrater reliability, construct validity, and concurrent v alidity of the instrument are presented in this paper: Age-adjusted no rmative data for total scores on rite instrument as well as item-by-it em data on the ages at which mastery of each skill was reported by 25% , 50%, and 75% of parents also are discussed. The Diabetes Independenc e Survey can be used as a reliable, valid, and efficient research tool for assessing the growth and development of diabetes knowledge and sk ills among children and adolescents, and as a screening instrument and program evaluation tool for clinical purposes.