The psychometric properties of a brief scale for assessing challenging behaviour

This paper describes the psychometric properties of a 15-item rating scale for the assessment of challenging behaviour exhihited by people with learning disabilities. Item selection was guided by the factor structure of the Aberrant Behaviour Checklist (Aman & Singh, 1986). Factor analysis of the new scale gives a 4 factor structure. The factors are labelled; Impulsive and Aggressive Behaviour, Passive Behaviour and Lethargy, Stereotypic and Self-injurious Behaviour and Active Social Avoidance. The scale has high internal reliability and moderate inter-rater reliability. Whether ratings were made on severity or frequency of behaviour made little difference to the inter-rater reliability. It is suggested that the scale may be useful in large scale surveys such as take place in the construction of population registers.