Anger, depression and self-concept in adults with mental retardation.
Child mood scales work for adults with mild ID, but self and caregiver reports often clash on anger.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team gave three child scales to adults with intellectual disability. They used the Children's Depression Inventory, a self-concept scale, and an anger checklist.
All adults lived in the community, not in large institutions. Staff who knew them well also filled out the same forms.
What they found
Low self-concept and high depression went hand in hand. Adults with mild ID said they were angrier than adults with more severe ID.
Self and staff answers matched on depression and self-concept, but they disagreed on anger.
How this fits with other research
Timberlake (1993) ran a near-copy study the next year and got the same result: the child depression scale works in adults with ID.
Schaal (1996) later built a brand-new nine-item scale for adults. It covers severe and profound ID, something the child scale never did.
Festinger et al. (1996) looked at all psychiatric symptoms and saw the same split: self and informant answers line up only about half the time.
Why it matters
You can trust adapted child scales when adults with mild ID speak for themselves. Still, always ask a caregiver too, especially about anger. If your client has more severe ID, switch to newer tools like the CPRS depression subscale instead of the Children's Depression Inventory.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Self-report measures of anger, depression and self-concept that were designed for non-retarded children were adapted for adults with mental retardation. The measures were administered to 130 adults with mental retardation who lived in the community. Informants rated the subjects on shortened forms of the three emotional indices. Informant self-concept ratings were negatively correlated with ratings of anger and depression. On the self-report measures, subjects who reported low self-concept also reported high levels of depression. Mildly mentally retarded subjects were more likely to report anger than severe/moderately retarded subjects. Informant and self-report measures were significantly correlated for self-concept and depression, but not for anger. The results provide preliminary normative data on indices of emotional adjustment for community-based adults with mental retardation.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 1992 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.1992.tb00492.x