Parental Adjustment Scale: Validation of a brief, five-item measure of parental adjustment for use with families of typically developing children and children with developmental and/or intellectual disabilities in Australia.

BACKGROUND: Explores the validity of the five-item parental adjustment scale, a subscale of the previously validated Parenting and Family Adjustment Scales. AIM: The aim was to assess the factor structure and convergent validity of a measure of parental adjustment within parents of typically developing children and parents of childiren with developmental and/or intellectual disabilities. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Cross-sectional survey data was analysed from Australian parents of children aged 2-12 years who were typically developing children (N = 683) and had developmental and/or intellectual disabilities (N = 756). Confirmatory factor analyses and multi-group structural equation modelling examined if the factor structure performed similarly across the two populations. Convergent validity was assessed. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: The confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesised one-factor structure for the parental adjustment scale in both populations. Partial measurement invariance confirmed that the scale was structurally consistent within both parent groups. The convergent validity was supported by significant correlations with the DASS-21 in the disability population and the K10 in the typically developing population. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: This brief, easily administered, five-item scale demonstrates strong potential in assessing parental adjustment, within both parents of typically developing children and parents of children with developmental and/or intellectual disabilities.

The effects of awareness and count duration on adult respiratory rate measurements: An experimental study.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether awareness of manual respiratory rate monitoring affects respiratory rate in adults, and whether count duration influences respiratory rate estimates. BACKGROUND: Nursing textbooks typically suggest that the patient should ideally be unaware of respiratory rate observations; however, there is little published evidence of the effect of awareness on respiratory rate, and none specific to manual measurement. In addition, recommendations about the length of the respiratory rate count vary from text to text, and the relevant empirical evidence is scant, inconsistent and subject to substantial methodological limitations. DESIGN: Experimental study with awareness of respiration monitoring (aware, unaware; randomised between-subjects) and count duration (60 s, 30 s, 15 s; within-subjects) as the independent variables. Respiratory rate (breaths/minute) was the dependent variable. METHODS: Eighty-two adult volunteers were randomly assigned to aware and unaware conditions. In the baseline block, no live monitoring occurred. In the subsequent experimental block, the researcher informed aware participants that their respiratory rate would be counted, and did so. Respirations were captured throughout via video recording, and counted by blind raters viewing 60-, 30- and 15-s extracts. The data were collected in 2015. RESULTS: There was no baseline difference between the groups. During the experimental block, the respiratory rates of participants in the aware condition were an average of 2.13 breaths/minute lower compared to unaware participants. Reducing the count duration from 1 min to 15 s caused respiratory rate to be underestimated by an average of 2.19 breaths/minute (and 0.95 breaths/minute for 30-s counts). The awareness effect did not depend on count duration. CONCLUSIONS: Awareness of monitoring appears to reduce respiratory rate, and shorter monitoring durations yield systematically lower respiratory rate estimates. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: When interpreting and acting upon respiratory rate data, clinicians should consider the potential influence of these factors, including cumulative effects.