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Biomedical subjects

R A Cummins

Publications and source records attributed to R A Cummins.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Fears of youth with mental retardation: psychometric evaluation of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-II (FSSC-II).

The nature and development of normal fear, although widely researched within the general population, has been seriously neglected for individuals with mental retardation. The present study involves the psychometric evaluation of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-II with two samples: 187 children and adolescents with mental retardation and 372 intellectually average students. The schedule was demonstrated to have sound psychometric properties for both samples including good internal consistency and high retest reliability. Sound validity indices were determined by examining the relationships of fear scores with state, trait, and manifest anxiety scores. Comparison of the two samples yielded significant differences. In particular, students with mental retardation were found to score significantly higher than the comparison sample. In contrast to the age-related decrease in fear found for students of average intelligence, those with mental retardation did not demonstrate a decrease in self-reported fear with age. Gender differences were consistent across both samples with females reporting higher levels of fearfulness and a greater number of fears than males.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Validation of the Lifestress Inventory for people with a mild intellectual disability.

The Subjective Stress Scale (SSS; Bramston & Bostock, 1994) was developed to measure stress in people with a mild intellectual disability. In previous research, the SSS was found to measure two broad dimensions of stress (a) a General Worry factor and (b) a factor that tapped concerns about Negative Interpersonal Relations (Bramston & Fogarty, 1995). The present study sought to continue this line of research by introducing a slightly modified form of the SSS, to be known as the Lifestress Inventory (LI) and examining the psychometric properties of the scale when administered to a new sample of 221 people with mild intellectual disabilities. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that three underlying factors corresponding to General Worry, Negative Interpersonal Relations, and Coping were sufficient to account for the correlations among the items in the LI. Rasch analysis indicated some improvements to the scoring format for the LI and also showed that the most easily experienced stressors were associated with the Negative Interpersonal Relations dimension. The refinements introduced by the LI and the further demonstration that some of the broad stress dimensions identified in the general population can also be found in people with an intellectual disability represent important milestones for researchers interested in exploring reactions to stress among this population.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Construction and psychometric properties of sexuality scales: sex knowledge, experience, and needs scales for people with intellectual disabilities (SexKen-ID), people with physical disabilities (SexKen-PD), and the general population (SexKen-GP).

This study reports on the development and assessment of the psychometric properties of three measures to assess sexual knowledge, experience, feelings, and needs. The first was designed to assess the Sexual Knowledge, Experience, Feelings, and Needs of people with mild intellectual disabilities (SexKen-ID). The two parallel measures were designed to assess the same areas of sexuality among people with physical disabilities (SexKen-PD) and among the general population (SexKen-GP). The areas of sexuality included in the scales were Friendship, Dating and Intimacy, Marriage, Body Part Identification, Sex and Sex Education, Menstruation, Sexual Interaction, Contraception, Pregnancy, Abortion and Child-birth, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Masturbation, and Homosexuality. Generation of the items in these scales is described in Studies 1-3. Study 4 describes the evaluation of the psychometric properties of the scales. Sixty-six people with intellectual disabilities, 54 people with physical disabilities, and 100 people from the general population completed the scales. Test-retest reliabilities were also calculated with 30 people with intellectual disabilities, 30 people with physical disabilities, and 30 people from the general population. These data demonstrate the good psychometric properties of the scales and so their simitability for assessing the sexual knowledge, experience, feelings, and needs of people with disability.

Adult↗