Psychosocial Concerns of Adults with Developmental Disabilities: Perspectives of the Self,Family Member,and Provider

Abstract

Obtaining the perspective of individuals with developmental delays (DD) is one of the major emergent trends in contemporary DD research (Lunsky & Benson, 1997). In this study, self-reports of individuals with DD were compared with proxy ratings from family and providers. Participants consisted of 34 individuals with DD, 34 healthcare providers, and 15 family members. All raters completed the “Consequences of Traumatic Brain Injury (CTBI; Gaudet, 1995)” instrument which consisted of scales assessing: 1) cognition, 2) interpersonal relationships, 3) adaptation to daily living, 4) emotions, and 5) sexuality. All scales, except “adaptation to daily living,” demonstrated acceptable reliability for the individuals with DD. Correlations between the ratings of individuals with DD and the proxy raters were low, as were the correlations between family members and providers. In all scales except “cognition,” the individual with DD showed less concerns than the proxy raters, but the difference was only statistically significant for the sexuality scale. Individuals with developmental disabilities can give reliable responses to self-report questionnaires that differ from the responses of proxy raters (providers and family).

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