The validity of a measure of adjustment in siblings of children with developmental and physical disabilities: a brief report

ABSTRACT

Background: Few questionnaires are tailored for siblings of children with disabilities. The Negative Adjustment Scale (NAS) was developed to measure siblings’ adjustment, but has not yet been validated.

Objective: To investigate the factor structure and convergent validity of the NAS.

Method: We examined the validity of the NAS in terms of factor structure and convergent validity against a general mental health measure. The sample comprised 107 siblings (M age = 11.5 years, SD = 2.1, 53.8% boys) of children with disabilities.

Results: We confirmed a one-factor structure for the NAS. Convergent validity was demonstrated through significant correlations (r=.29–.44) with sibling externalizing and internalizing mental health difficulties.

Conclusion: The NAS holds promise as a measure tailored for the assessment of sibling’s adjustment.

KEYWORDS:

• Negative adjustment
• developmental disorders
• physical disabilities
• siblings
• mental health
• confirmatory factor analysis

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the participants for taking part in this study.

Declaration of interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.