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Treatment acceptability of choice-making interventions for adults with developmental disabilities

University of British Columbia

The lives of people with developmental disabilities are often characterized by few opportunities to make choices. Increasing choice-making opportunities for people with developmental disabilities is important because research has shown that choice-making is related to both improved quality of life and reductions in challenging behaviour. Direct-care service providers who work in residential group home settings may lack the skills and/or knowledge about how to increase choice-making opportunities for the people with whom they work. Thus, consultants are often called upon to support direct-care service providers to acquire general skills and knowledge in this area, as well as to develop behavioural choice-making interventions to support group home residents. Research has shown that many aspects of an intervention may affect the degree to which direct-care service providers perceive an intervention as acceptable. Intervention acceptability has been found to be directly related to the likelihood that an intervention will be implemented and, therefore, successful. The focus of the current study was to examine the effects of three variables on group home staffs' acceptability ratings of treatments designed to increase choice-making behaviours in adults with developmental disabilities. The three variables were the purpose of the treatments, their potential impact on staff, and the time required to implement them. Eighty-eight direct-care service providers from three agencies providing residential supports to adults with developmental disabilities in British Columbia participated in the study. Each participant was provided with one of eight vignettes of a group home resident and an intervention designed to increase choice-making across the resident's day. The vignettes were assigned at random across participants. Data collection measures included a Demographic Information Sheet, the Treatment Evaluation Inventory (Kazdin, 1980a), and a Choice-Availability Sheet. Results of a 2x2x2 analysis of variance suggested that neither intervention purpose, staff impact, nor time required significantly affected the acceptability ratings made by direct-care service providers. T-tests revealed no significant differences among a number of participant demographic variables with regard to either acceptability ratings or choice-availability ratings. Correlational analysis suggested that the acceptability ratings were related to how willing participants would be to implement the interventions described in the vignettes. Implications for consultants who support direct care staff in group homes and for future research are discussed.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-05-25

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/8169

Special Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace