The aberrant behavior checklist: a behavior rating scale for the assessment of treatment effects.

TLDR

A new scale was developed to evaluate the effects of drugs and other treatments on individuals with severe mental retardation. The scale was first applied to 418 residents using a comprehensive item set, then refined to an intermediate version and administered to 509 moderately to profoundly retarded individuals. Factor analyses of the two samples yielded a 58‑item, five‑factor Aberrant Behavior Checklist (I–V), and its subscale scores were compared with established childhood psychopathology and mental‑retardation rating scales.

Abstract

The development of a scale to assess drug and other treatment effects on severely mentally retarded individuals was described. In the first stage of the project, an initial scale encompassing a large number of behavior problems was used to rate 418 residents. The scale was then reduced to an intermediate version, and in the second stage, 509 moderately to profoundly retarded individuals were rated. Separate factor analyses of the data from the two samples resulted in a five-factor scale comprising 58 items. The factors of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist have been labeled as follows: (I) Irritability, Agitation, Crying; (II) Lethargy, Social Withdrawal; (III) Stereotypic Behavior; (IV) Hyperactivity, Noncompliance; and (V) Inappropriate Speech. Average subscale scores were presented for the instrument, and the results were compared with empirically derived rating scales of childhood psychopathology and with factor analytic work in the field of mental retardation.