Caregivers' agreement and validity of indirect functional analysis: a cross cultural evaluation across multiple problem behavior topographies.
Spanish MAS is usable for Social, Attention and Sensory functions but interpret the Escape subscale with caution.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Virues-Ortega et al. (2011) tested the Spanish version of the Motivation Assessment Scale.
They asked caregivers of children with autism to fill it out.
The team checked if the Spanish questions held together the same way as the English original.
What they found
The Social, Attention, and Sensory subscales looked solid.
The Escape subscale did not hang together well.
Caregivers agreed on the main function of the behavior about three-quarters of the time.
How this fits with other research
Dachez et al. (2015) later found the French MAS worked fine in all four areas.
Xia et al. (2020) got the same good news with the Chinese version.
The Spanish Escape glitch seems to be the odd one out, not a wider pattern.
Why it matters
If you use the Spanish MAS, you can trust the Social, Attention, and Sensory scores.
Double-check Escape results with a quick ABC observation before you write the behavior plan.
This small step keeps treatment decisions sharp for Spanish-speaking families.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The Motivation Assessment Scale is an aid for hypothesis-driven functional analysis. This study presents its Spanish cross-cultural validation while examining psychometric attributes not yet explored. The study sample comprised 80 primary caregivers of children with autism. Acceptability, scaling assumptions, internal consistency, factor structure, inter-assessor reliability and agreement, and known-group validity analyses were performed. Scaling assumptions, internal consistency (Cronbach alpha of 0.75) and factor structure were satisfactory other than for the Escape domain which demonstrated low internal consistency (0.65), inadequate scaling assumptions (multitrait analysis, 50% success rate) and did not constitute a separate factor. Caregivers' agreement for the primary function reached 73.9% and known group-validity hypotheses across behavior topographies were partially met. The clinical appropriateness of the scale is discussed.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2011 · doi:10.1007/s10803-010-1022-y