ISSUES IN EARLY INTERVENTION - MEASURING ATTITUDES ABOUT FAMILY-CENTERED SERVICES

The steps taken to develop an attitude-gauging instrument which is con sistent with a family-centered approach in early intervention are repo rted. Data provided by occupational therapists (N=319) in two pilot st udies were used to support reliability and validity of the questionnai re, Issues in Early Intervention (IEI). Also, factors that may influen ce how occupational therapists, attending workshops on early intervent ion, responded to the questionnaire are reported. A regression model w as able to explain 25% of the variance of the total score for IEI. The results suggest that geographic region and employment experience char acteristics have small but significant influence on respondents' attit udes.