Validation of the Contextual Assessment Inventory for Problem Behavior

Abstract

Problem behavior is a major barrier to successful community integration for people with developmental disabilities. Recently, there has been increased interest in identifying contextual factors involving setting events and discriminative stimuli that impact the display of problem behavior. The authors previously developed the Contextual Assessment Inventory and evaluated it for efficiency, comprehensiveness, comprehensibility, and reliability. This study further evaluated this inventory with respect to convergent and predictive validity. Convergent validity was examined for 17 participants with developmental disabilities through a review of community residence log entries that included a record of the contextual events associated with each episode of problem behavior. Predictive validity was evaluated for a subset of 5 participants through direct observation of contextual events. Results indicated that the inventory had both convergent and predictive validity. Implications for extending contextual assessment and using such information to develop intervention strategies are explored.