Development and Preliminary Examination of the Psychometric Properties of the Behavior Problem Checklist.

Objective:Clinical settings require an efficient and informative approach to the assessment of caregiving situations to help providers decide how to focus interventions. Providers serving caregivers need to know about care recipients, who may not be available in the same clinical setting where the caregiver is being served, so checklists have been developed to elicit the caregivers’ perceptions of the problem (e.g., symptoms, functional challenges, and attributions for the problem). The purpose of this study was to conduct a preliminary test of reliability and validity of an assessment tool designed for use in clinical settings that serves caregivers of persons with physical illness as well as dementias.Methods:Informal family caregiver clients in a counseling program (N = 502) completed assessment questionnaires, including a new measure, the Behavior Problem Checklist, during intake, prior to intervention. The sample was divided into a development sample (N = 400) and a verification sample (N = 102) in order to examine the psychometric properties of the Behavior Problem Checklist.Results:The Behavior Problem Checklist exhibited item-total internal reliability, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity with another measure of behavior problems.Conclusions:The Behavior Problem Checklist appears to be a valid tool to assess problem behaviors. At its current level of development, it is deemed to be appropriate for use in research settings. With further study, the BPC may prove to be a useful clinical tool for use with caregivers to help identify care recipient problem areas that can assist providers with selection of interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]