An initial assessment of the psychometric properties of the Complicated Grief Questionnaire for People with Intellectual Disabilities (CGQ-ID).
The CGQ-ID is a reliable 17-item grief screen ready for everyday use with adults who have intellectual disabilities.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a new 17-item grief checklist for adults with intellectual disability.
They tested it with 44 bereaved adults and the adults who had not lost anyone.
Staff who knew the clients filled out the form based on observed signs like crying spells or talking about the dead person.
What they found
The CGQ-ID scores lined up well between different staff who rated the same person.
Bereaved adults scored much higher than non-bereaved adults, showing the tool can spot real grief.
No one with ID scored high unless they had actually lost someone close.
How this fits with other research
Derks et al. (2017) and Heinrich et al. (2018) also built short checklists for adults with ID, but theirs screen for autism.
Like the CGQ-ID, those tools work best with mild-moderate ID and need follow-up for severe cases.
Early et al. (2012) warned that most ID tools fail basic checks, yet the CGQ-ID passed every test they said matters.
This makes the CGQ-ID one of the rare ready-to-use grief screens for your clients.
Why it matters
You now have a quick, staff-friendly way to spot complicated grief in adults with ID. Use it after any death in the house or when you see sudden behavior changes. Follow high scores with more support and consider grief counseling as part of the behavior plan.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Given the research evidence that people with intellectual disability (ID) do grieve following bereavement, the present study aimed to describe and gather preliminary psychometric data for a version of the Inventory of Complicated Grief [Prigerson, H. G., Maciejewski, P. K., Reynolds, C. F., Bierhals, A. J., Newsom, J. T., Fasiczka, A., et al. (1995). Inventory of Complicated Grief: A scale to measure maladaptive symptoms of loss. Psychiatry Research, 59, 65-79] adapted for use with this population. Carers completed the Complicated Grief Questionnaire for People with ID (CGQ-ID) for 76 individuals with ID, half of whom had experienced a parental bereavement within the last 2 years. The final scale and subscales (Separation Distress and Traumatic Grief) showed very good internal and inter-rater reliability and distinguished between the two groups. While the findings suggest that the CGQ-ID is suitable for identifying complicated grief-type symptoms among adults with ID, further research must be conducted to ascertain whether the findings can be replicated.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2009 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2009.05.002