The Measure of Adaptive Functioning for Secure Services – Development and Initial Validation

This paper describes the development and initial evaluation of the Measure of Adaptive Functioning for Secure Services - a carer-rated assessment of adaptive functioning for low and medium secure settings. The measure was developed systematically via a process of item development, item reduction and an initial scale validation. Our initial data suggests good internal consistency, construct validity and content validity. It is the first adaptive functioning measure we are aware of for people within the secure hospital setting. Further research is needed to examine the psychometric properties of the measure and establish norms to guide interpretation of scores.