| The major purpose of this study was to validate the Social Response Survey Schedule-Revised for use with adults with mild and moderate mental retardation. Specifically, the content and concurrent validities of the SPSS-R were investigated, providing evidence of the utility of this rating scale in the assessment of social performance of adults with mental retardation.;In order to accomplish this, the SPSS-R was completed on 30 individuals who resided in ICF/MR settings in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. All subjects were classified as being either mildly or moderately mentally retarded and were 21 years of age and older. The majority of subjects also possessed a psychiatric diagnosis in addition to their primary diagnosis of mental retardation.;To address the issue of content validity, expert judges in the field of mental retardation evaluated each of the 57 items of the SPSS-R in terms of appropriateness as measures of social performance of institutionalized adults with retardation. The majority of the items were determined by experts to be adequate measures of social performance for the targeted population.;To evaluate the concurrent validity of the SPSS-R, this scale was compared to the Socialization Domain of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-Interview Edition, Survey Form, an adaptive assessment device with well-established psychometric properties. The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients obtained gave considerable support to the Positive Subscale of the SPSS-R in comparison to the Socialization Domain of the VABS, with a moderate and predicted inverse correlation of the Negative Subscale of the SPSS-R to the Socialization Domain. A low correlation of the Total SPSS-R score with the Socialization Domain was obtained. |
