The reliabilty and validity of a revised version of the How I Think Questionnaire for men who have intellectual disabilities

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to revise an existing measure of distorted cognitions, creating the How I Think Questionnaire – Intellectual Disabilities (HIT-IDs), and to investigate the reliability and validity of the revised questionnaire. To achieve our aims, we recruited 97 men with intellectual disabilities (IDs), with or without a history of engaging in criminal behaviour, and interviewed them on two occasions, inviting them to complete the HIT-IDs, along with measures of moral development and empathy. The results indicated that the internal consistency of the HIT-IDs was acceptable, and the test–retest reliability was good. The HIT-IDs discriminated well between offenders and non-offenders, and as expected, correlated positively with a measure of moral development and negatively with a measure of empathy. The HIT-IDs is a reliable and valid measure for use with men who have IDs.

KEYWORDS:

• Neurodevelopmental disorders
• learning disabilities
• moral development
• Sociomoral Reflection Measure-Short Form
• Empathy Quotient

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Peter E. Langdon is supported by a National Institute for Health Research Postdoctoral Fellowship (Grant Reference: NIHR-PDF-2011-04-040). This article presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the National Health Service, the National Institute for Health Research or the Department of Health. The National Institute for Health Research, the National Health Service, or the Department of Health had no role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.