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Vaz S, Cordier R, Falkmer M, Ciccarelli M, Parsons R, McAuliffe T, Falkmer T. Should schools expect poor physical and mental health, social adjustment, and participation outcomes in students with disability? PLoS One 2015; 10:e0126630. [PMID: 25965845 PMCID: PMC4429077 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0126630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2014] [Accepted: 04/05/2015] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
The literature on whether students with disabilities have worse physical and mental health, social adjustment, and participation outcomes when compared to their peers without disabilities is largely inconclusive. While the majority of case control studies showed significantly worse outcomes for students with disabilities; the proportion of variance accounted for is rarely reported. The current study used a population cross-sectional approach to determine the classification ability of commonly used screening and outcome measures in determining the disability status. Furthermore, the study aimed to identify the variables, if any, that best predicted the presence of disability. Results of univariate discriminant function analyses suggest that across the board, the sensitivity of the outcome/screening tools to correctly identify students with a disability was 31.9% higher than the related Positive Predictive Value (PPV). The lower PPV and Positive Likelihood Ratio (LR+) scores suggest that the included measures had limited discriminant ability (17.6% to 40.3%) in accurately identifying students at-risk for further assessment. Results of multivariate analyses suggested that poor health and hyperactivity increased the odds of having a disability about two to three times, while poor close perceived friendship and academic competences predicted disability with roughly the same magnitude. Overall, the findings of the current study highlight the need for researchers and clinicians to familiarize themselves with the psychometric properties of measures, and be cautious in matching the function of the measures with their research and clinical needs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sharmila Vaz
- School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | - Reinie Cordier
- School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Marita Falkmer
- School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- School of Education and Communication, CHILD programme, Institution of Disability Research Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden
| | - Marina Ciccarelli
- School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Richard Parsons
- School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- School of Pharmacy, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Tomomi McAuliffe
- James Cook University, College of Healthcare Sciences, Occupational Therapy, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
| | - Torbjorn Falkmer
- School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- Rehabilitation Medicine, Department of Medicine and Health Sciences (IMH), Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University & Pain and Rehabilitation Centre, UHL, County Council, Linköping, Sweden
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Vaz S, Parsons R, Passmore AE, Andreou P, Falkmer T. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability and measurement error of the self-report version of the social skills rating system in a sample of Australian adolescents. PLoS One 2013; 8:e73924. [PMID: 24040116 PMCID: PMC3767833 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073924] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2013] [Accepted: 07/24/2013] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The social skills rating system (SSRS) is used to assess social skills and competence in children and adolescents. While its characteristics based on United States samples (US) are published, corresponding Australian figures are unavailable. Using a 4-week retest design, we examined the internal consistency, retest reliability and measurement error (ME) of the SSRS secondary student form (SSF) in a sample of Year 7 students (N = 187), from five randomly selected public schools in Perth, western Australia. Internal consistency (IC) of the total scale and most subscale scores (except empathy) on the frequency rating scale was adequate to permit independent use. On the importance rating scale, most IC estimates for girls fell below the benchmark. Test-retest estimates of the total scale and subscales were insufficient to permit reliable use. ME of the total scale score (frequency rating) for boys was equivalent to the US estimate, while that for girls was lower than the US error. ME of the total scale score (importance rating) was larger than the error using the frequency rating scale. The study finding supports the idea of using multiple informants (e.g. teacher and parent reports), not just student as recommended in the manual. Future research needs to substantiate the clinical meaningfulness of the MEs calculated in this study by corroborating them against the respective Minimum Clinically Important Difference (MCID).
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Affiliation(s)
- Sharmila Vaz
- School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Centre for Research into Disability and Society, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Richard Parsons
- School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Anne Elizabeth Passmore
- School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Pantelis Andreou
- Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - Torbjörn Falkmer
- School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- School of Occupational Therapy, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Vic. Australia
- Rehabilitation Medicine, Department of Medicine and Health Sciences (IMH), Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University & Pain and Rehabilitation Centre, UHL, County Council, Linköping, Sweden
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Social Skills. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2007. [DOI: 10.1016/s0074-7750(07)34010-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register]
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Van der Oord S, Van der Meulen EM, Prins PJM, Oosterlaan J, Buitelaar JK, Emmelkamp PMG. A psychometric evaluation of the social skills rating system in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Behav Res Ther 2005; 43:733-46. [PMID: 15890166 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2004.06.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 73] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2003] [Revised: 05/06/2004] [Accepted: 06/03/2004] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
The social skills rating system (SSRS) was developed to assess social skills of children, as observed by multiple raters (teacher, parent, child). Studies of the SSRS have been conducted with handicapped, mentally retarded and learning disabled children. No studies have reported the psychometric properties of the SSRS in a clinical ADHD sample. This is important, because deficient social functioning is associated with ADHD. The present study assesses the psychometric properties of the teacher, parent and child versions of the SSRS in children with ADHD (n = 123), and normal controls (n = 239). Also, the social skills of children with ADHD, as rated on the SSRS were examined. Results support the factor structure and internal consistency of the original SSRS-teacher version. Moreover, support was found for 3 out of 4 scales of the SSRS-parent version. The factor structure of the SSRS-child version could not be replicated. An explanatory factor analysis on the SSRS-child version yielded two factors. Evidence was found for discriminative ability of the SSRS between normal controls and children with ADHD. Finally, informant agreement between raters was found to be poor.
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Affiliation(s)
- S Van der Oord
- Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
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