Elsevier

Research in Developmental Disabilities

Volume 30, Issue 5, September–October 2009, Pages 933-941
Research in Developmental Disabilities

Support for the construct validity of the Supports Intensity Scale based on clinician rankings of need

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2009.01.007Get rights and content

Abstract

The Supports Intensity Scale (SIS) is designed as a measure of support needs for individuals with intellectual disability. The current validity study required five experienced clinicians to rank a total of 50 cases as having Low, Medium, or High Support Need based on descriptions that were part of an assessment package for services. These rankings were compared to individuals’ SIS scores. The three groups (Low, Medium, High Need) differed in their SIS Support Needs Index scores as well as 6 of the 7 subscale scores. Home Living Activities and Exceptional Behavioral Support Needs emerged as the strongest predictors of group status. These results suggest that the SIS provides valid information regarding the needs of individuals with intellectual disability receiving services.

Section snippets

Study sample

We selected profiles of 50 participants at random from a group of 479 adults with intellectual disability who participated in a larger project on service utilization and support need. Participants were selected from across the province of Ontario. The current sample's support needs, service use, and demographic information is compared to that of the entire sample in Table 1. To assess the extent to which the current sample was similar to the larger sample, chi-square tests of independence and

Results

Twenty-eight percent of individuals were ranked as Low Need, 35% were ranked as Medium Need, and 37% were ranked as High Need. Table 2 lists the mean differences in support needs between Low, Medium, and High Need groups as well as differences in key demographic characteristics. Nonparametric analyses suggest that characteristics are differentiated in expected directions. Groups differed significantly with regard to the percent that speak English as a first language (with the highest percent

Discussion

The current findings lend support for the construct validity of the SIS. Clinicians assessed the intensity of support needs of individuals unknown to them into 3 levels (Low, Medium, or High) based on clinical information provided in an assessment package for services. Groups with clinician-rated Low, Medium, and High Needs had significantly different SIS Support Needs Index scores and six of seven SIS subscale scores. The only exception was on the Life-Long Learning subscale score between

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services as part of their goal to test the reliability and validity of the Supports Intensity Scale for use in Ontario. The authors wish to thank the clinicians from the CAMH Dual Diagnosis Program who acted as raters in this study, and Monica Neitzert, Minghao Her, and Rae Roebuck for their valuable input on the Ontario SIS project. A special thanks to the many individuals who participated in the piloting of the Ontario

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