Psychometric properties and normative data for the parent version of the diabetes independence survey.

The parent version of the Diabetes Independence Survey measures parents' perceptions of their children's mastery of 38 diabetes self-care skills. The instrument was administered to 648 parents of 622 children with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, ages 3 and 18 years, at seven different pediatric medical centers. Data confirming the internal consistency, interrater reliability, construct validity, and concurrent validity of the instrument are presented in this paper. Age-adjusted normative data for total scores on the instrument as well as item-by-item data on the ages at which mastery of each skill was reported by 25%, 50%, and 75% of parents also are discussed. The Diabetes Independence Survey can be used as a reliable, valid, and efficient research tool for assessing the growth and development of diabetes knowledge and skills among children and adolescents, and as a screening instrument and program evaluation tool for clinical purposes.

Compliance and quality in residential life. Analyzing the impact of regulations on residential ecology.

Viewed from a behavior analytic perspective as a form of verbal behavior, regulatory rules affect the behavior of service providers in residential programs directly and indirectly; they can facilitate habilitative services or exert a powerful counter-habilitative influence. Because regulations are written to apply to the general case, regulatory rules tend to become decontextualized, often failing to address (a) the needs of individuals and (b) specific environmental circumstances. Ecobehavioral analysis of rule-governed behavior in residential settings can provide a means of understanding and measuring the effects of regulatory rules. Feedback from field settings about the effects of regulatory rules on the behavior of people who live and work in residential settings would help to recontextualize the rule-making process and promote better correspondence between the intended effects of regulations and their actual effects.

Counter-habilitative contingencies in institutions for people with mental retardation: ecological and regulatory influences.

Different levels of influence result in contingencies of reinforcement that can affect the behavior of staff members and residents in facilities for people with mental retardation. Although the intent of any residential facility is surely habilitation, some types of influence result in contingencies of reinforcement that do not promote adaptive behavior by residents, that is, are counter-habilitative. Some of the conceptual issues involved in understanding the operation of these contingencies in complex caregiving environments were discussed. Preliminary data gathered from one highly specialized residential facility were used to illustrate the influence of social, ecological, and regulatory contingencies that could have a counter-habilitative impact on residents. We concluded that a close examination of all levels of influence affecting institutions, their staff, and residents will be necessary if better progress is to be made towards adequately serving the needs of people who live in institutional settings.