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Individual Skills (individual + skill)
Selected AbstractsThe Reliability, Validity and Practical Utility of Measuring Supports using the I-CAN Instrument: Part IIJOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 4 2009Vivienne C. Riches Background, There is an urgent need for developing reliable, valid and practical instruments that assess and classify the support needed by persons with disability to function in their chosen living, working and social environments. I-CAN is an instrument that addresses the frequency and level of support needed (not individual skills or deficits) for each individual with a disability. Method, Studies were conducted to assess the test,retest reliability and inter-rater reliability. Concurrent validity was investigated by exploring the relationship between the I-CAN domain scales and the Inventory for Client and Agency Planning (ICAP) (Bruininks et al. 1986) and the Quality of Life Questionnaire (QOL-Q) (Schalock & Keith 1993). Predictive validity studies were undertaken using day- and night-time support hours. Regression analyses were run using these measures with I-CAN domain scales. Two independent studies were also conducted to ascertain the practical utility of the instrument. Results, The I-CAN instrument demonstrated excellent inter-rater and test,retest reliability in the Activities and Participation domains. Low-to-moderate test,retest results in Physical Health, Mental Emotional Health and Behaviour domains were tracked to actual change in support needs in these areas. Validity proved acceptable. The relationships between I-CAN domain scales and adaptive behaviour were mixed but in the expected direction. Low-to-moderate correlation coefficients were evident between the I-CAN scales and the QOL-Q Total, but greater support needed in certain domains was associated with less empowerment and independence, and less community integration and social belonging. Attempts to explain current support hours against the I-CAN scales were disappointing and suggest that a number of other factors apart from individual support need to play a significant role. There was general satisfaction with the assessment process from stakeholders and participant groups. Conclusions, I-CAN is a reliable, valid and user-friendly instrument for assessing the support needs of people with disabilities. It uses a process that involves the persons with disability, their family and friends and staff as appropriate. It is also apparent that the current provision of paid support hours by agencies is a complex phenomenon that is not based solely on individual support needs. Further research is warranted on the influence of the environment and the perceptions of need for support based on negotiable and non-negotiable support needs. [source] The validation of a rating scale to assess dietitians' use of behaviour change skillsJOURNAL OF HUMAN NUTRITION & DIETETICS, Issue 4 2008G. Bonner Background:, Evidence suggests that education alone is unlikely to elicit dietary-behavioural change (Contento, 1995). Consequently, many dietitians are moving from a traditional advice-giving role to one which utilises ,behaviour change skills' (BCS) in dietary counselling. BCS is an umbrella term used to cover a wide range of skills and techniques drawn from the fields of counselling, motivational interviewing (MI) and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). In order to assess the efficacy of this approach, a means of quantifying BCS-use is required. This two-stage study aimed to validate a newly-devised scale to assess dietitians' BCS-use in one-to-one dietary counselling. Methods:, Items for the scale were generated by drawing on the literature, syllabi for training in BCS and its parent disciplines (counselling, MI and CBT), and specialist dietitians. The resulting scale and manual were revised following assessment of content validity by expert panel and piloting. In stage one, 21 dietetic consultations were audiotaped and rated for BCS-use by three BCS-trained dietitians. Inter-rater agreement was calculated using the kappa statistic and intra-class correlation (ICC), to give a ,chance corrected' measure of agreement. Validity was tested using a psychologist's subjective assessment of BCS-use as a proxy ,gold-standard' compared with the dietitians' ratings, again using kappa and ICC. In stage two the scale was further revised before an additional 20 audiotaped consultations were analysed using the same procedure. Ethical approval for the study was given by the appropriate NHS and university research ethics committees. Results:, At stage one, although kappas were fairly poor for agreement on individual criteria, the ICC for overall scores indicated a ,fair' level of agreement, according to Shrout's (1998) classifications: ICC = 0.584 (CI 0.339,0.784). Results for validity were poor with the psychologist frequently rating higher than the dietitians. At stage two, following scale revision, results for inter-rater agreement improved with more criteria showing ,moderate' or ,substantial' agreement. Ten out of the 21 criteria achieved levels of agreement classified as ,fair' or higher for all three rater pairs. The ICC for overall scores improved to indicate ,moderate' agreement: ICC = 0.640 (CI 0.404,0.821). Validity results remained poor. Discussion:, The moderate level of overall inter-rater agreement observed in the revised scale is considered acceptable (Jones, 2006) and indicates this tool is useful. This measure is more relevant to the purpose of the tool than agreement on individual criteria given it is intended to classify consultations overall as low/medium/high use of BCS rather than to examine individual skills. However, in terms of validity, the discrepancy between dietitian and psychologist ratings requires further investigation. It is hypothesized that the dietitians had higher expectations of what a dietitian could achieve in terms of proficiency in BCS and, as such, rated more stringently than the psychologist. Achieving a clear picture of validity usually necessitates a series of assessments (Murphy & Davidshofer, 2005); the BCS rating scale is no exception with further testing required. Conclusions:, The revised scale shows acceptable inter-rater reliability and robust content validity in our study sample. However, quantitative examination of validity gave poor results and further assessment is required to provide a tool with which we can confidently assess dietitians' use of BCS. References, Contento, I., Balch, G.I., Bronner, Y.L. et al. (1995) The effectiveness of nutrition education and implications for nutrition education policy, programs, and research: a review of the research. J. Nutr. Educ.27, 355,364. Jones, J.M. (2006) Nutritional Screening and Assessment Tools. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Murphy, K.R. & Davidshofer, C.O. (2005) Psychological Testing , Principles and Applications, 6th edn. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc. Shrout, P. (1998) Measurement reliability and agreement in psychiatry. Stat. Methods Med. Res. 7, 301,317. [source] Research Review: Can we justify the widespread dissemination of universal, school-based interventions for the prevention of depression among children and adolescents?THE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 6 2007Susan H Spence This review examines the evidence concerning the efficacy and effectiveness of universal, school-based interventions designed to prevent the development of depression in children and adolescents. It evaluates the outcomes of research in relation to standards of evidence specified by the Society for Prevention Research (Flay et al., 2005). The limited evidence available brings into doubt the efficacy and effectiveness of current universal, school-based approaches to the prevention of depression, suggesting that the widespread dissemination of such interventions would be premature. Relatively brief programs, that focus specifically on enhancing individual skills and characteristics of the individual in the absence of environmental change, may be insufficient to produce lasting effects in the prevention of depression among children and adolescents. [source] Individual feeding specialisation in shorebirds: population consequences and conservation implicationsBIOLOGICAL REVIEWS, Issue 4 2000SARAH E. A. LE V. DIT DURELL ABSTRACT Individual feeding specialisation in shorebirds is reviewed, and the possible mechanisms involved in such specialisations. Any specialisation can be seen as an individual strategy, and the optimum strategy for any given individual will be conditional upon its specific priorities and constraints. Some specialisations are related to social status and some to individual skills. Some are also probably frequency-dependent. However, most shorebird specialisations are constrained to a large extent by individual morphology, particularly bill morphology. For example, larger birds are able to handle larger prey, and birds with longer bills are able to feed on more deeply buried prey. Sex differences in bill length are uncommon in the Charardriidae, which are surface peckers, but are common in the Scolopacidae, which feed by probing in soft substrates. Sex differences in bill morphology are frequently associated with sex differences in feeding specialisation. There is evidence that different feeding specialisations are associated with different payoffs, in which case the probability of failing to reproduce or of dying will not be distributed equally throughout the population. I consider the population consequences of such feeding specialisations, particularly the different risks and benefits associated with different habitats or diets. I also consider the way in which individuals may differ in their response to habitat loss or change. I suggest that population models designed to predict the effect of habitat loss or change on shorebirds should have the ability to investigate the differential response of certain sections of the population, particularly different ages or sexes, that specialise in different diets or feeding methods. [source] | ||||||||||