The psychometric properties of the Index of Social Competence: A British replication

The Index of Social Competence (McConkey & Walsh, 1982), is an assessment checklist covering 15 adaptive behaviour domains, used in surveys of service requirements. The instrument was administered to 427 people with learning difficulties living in hospital, community residential facilities and in the family home as part of a wider investigation into local service needs within a health district in the West Midlands of England. Factor analysis of the data suggested that there were two main factors “Functional cognition” and “Self-care”. Comparison is made with McConkey and Walsh’s (1982) previous description of a three factor solution. Further analysis shows the instrument to be highly internally consistent and to discriminate between people living in hospital, in staffed community homes and in the homes of their families.