![Sample our Health and Social Care journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5938/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Health-Social-Care.jpg"})
Abstract
Background The study reported here was an examination of the reliability of a method for determining acquiescent responding and the capacity to respond to items using a Likert scale response format by adults with an intellectual disability.
Method Reliability of the outcomes of these procedures was investigated using a test–retest design. Associations with receptive vocabulary were examined.
Results The majority of the participants did not demonstrate acquiescent responding. Individuals’ responses to the Likert-type discrimination tasks were consistent, although this varied somewhat depending upon the abstractness of the task. There was some association between receptive language age equivalence scores and respondent performance.
Conclusion It is recommended that the pretest protocol (a) be modified to improve its reliability, and (b) this modified version be used with study participants who have an intellectual disability to ascertain the appropriate level of choice to be used for items that use a Likert response format.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the individuals who contributed to this study for their assistance.
The research reported in the manuscript was funded by the Michael Cameron Fund. No restrictions on publication of, or access to, the data were imposed by the funding body. None of the authors had a conflict of interest in the conduct of the study, and no financial or nonfinancial benefits accrue to any of the authors with respect to the outcomes of the study.