Adaptive functioning assessment for secure hospitals
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The development of an adaptive functioning assessment for individuals within secure hospital settings
IRAS ID
236190
Contact name
Danielle Mayes
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
St Andrews Healthcare
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 30 days
Research summary
Adaptive functioning (AF) refers to the skills required to function independently. A deficit in AF is 1 of 3 criteria required an intellectual disability (ID; also termed learning disability), diagnosis, alongside deficits in IQ and the onset occurs before 18. Historically, IQ has been given the most emphasis, however, it's now argued that greater emphasis should be placed on AF due to the limitations in considering IQ alone (BPS, 2015). This shift is reflected in the move within the DSM-5 towards using the individual’s level of AF, rather than IQ, to inform the severity of the ID (Tasse, 2016). There are various AF assessments available, including the ABAS and the VABS, however, items within these tools largely biased towards hose living in the community. Therefore, they are limited when applied to those living in a secure setting, particularly when individuals have lived here for the majority of their adult life. This project seeks to explore the daily living (adaptive) skills required to function within a secure hospital and to develop an assessment of AF suitable for individuals within this setting. The study will take place at St Andrews and will involve two phases. Phase 1: A minimum of 10 staff and patients (both with and without LD) will take part in semi-structured interviews which will be analysed to explore what daily living skills are required to be adaptive within a secure hospital. Items will then be derived from the interviews and cross referenced against a conceptual framework of AF devised by Smith (2016). Phase 2: The new tool will be refined and its psychometric properties evaluated by having a staff member who knows the participant well complete the new assessment. Items will be reduced using item analysis and reliability and validity will be established using a range of different statistical analyses.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/EM/0046
Date of REC Opinion
27 Apr 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion