Questions about behavioral function in mental illness (QABF-MI): a behavior checklist for functional assessment of maladaptive behavior exhibited by individuals with mental illness.
The QABF-MI gives BCBAs a fast, five-factor checklist to pinpoint what maintains problem behavior in adults with mental illness.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a 25-item checklist called the QABF-MI. It asks caregivers why adults with mental illness act out.
They tested the form with psychiatric inpatients. Staff rated what seemed to drive each problem behavior.
The goal was to see if the tool gave clear, reliable answers like the original QABF does for people with ID.
What they found
The checklist held together. Five reasons for behavior popped out: attention, escape, tangible, sensory, and medical.
Ratings were steady across time and staff. The five-factor fit matched the classic QABF pattern.
How this fits with other research
Burack et al. (2004) did something similar with teens who refuse school. They also linked diagnosis to function, but used surveys, not a checklist.
Meir et al. (2012) later used factor analysis to build a pain scale for nonverbal adults with IDD. Both papers show brief rating forms can work when clients can’t speak for themselves.
Katz et al. (2003) created a parent interview for toddlers with autism. That tool tracks symptom change; QABF-MI tracks why behaviors happen. Same idea—different age and target.
Why it matters
If you serve adults with serious mental illness, you now have a quick, valid way to find the “why” behind aggression, self-injury, or withdrawal. Complete the QABF-MI during intake, pick the top function, and build your behavior plan around it. No extra training, no long interview—just 25 ticks and you’re ready to write a function-based treatment.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The Questions About Behavioral Function (QABF), a 25-item rating scale, was developed to identify the function(s) of maladaptive behavior in individuals with developmental disabilities. The authors adapted it for use with individuals with serious mental illness who engage in maladaptive behavior and assessed the psychometric characteristics of the new scale (Questions About Behavioral Function in Mental Illness; QABF-MI) in a sample of 135 adults with serious mental illness from three inpatient psychiatric hospitals. Staff most familiar with each person rated each item on a 5-point Likert-type rating scale, and the ratings were subjected to a number of psychometric analyses. The results of factor analyses provided a conceptually meaningful five-factor solution: physical discomfort, social attention, tangible reinforcement, escape, and nonsocial reinforcement. Congruence between the five factors derived with the QABF-MI and the corresponding factors in the original QABF was perfect. The results indicated that the QABF-MI has robust psychometric properties and may be useful as a screening tool for determining the nature of the variables that maintain maladaptive behavior exhibited by individuals with serious mental illness.
Behavior modification, 2006 · doi:10.1177/0145445506286700