The Behavior Problems Inventory-Short Form for individuals with intellectual disabilities: part I: development and provisional clinical reference data.
The 30-item BPI-S is a valid, faster stand-in for the 49-item BPI-01 when assessing self-injury, stereotypy, and aggression in people with ID.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team trimmed the 49-item Behavior Problems Inventory (BPI-01) down to 30 items. They kept only the questions that best tracked self-injury, stereotypy, and aggression.
Caregivers of the adults with intellectual disability answered both forms. The study checked if the short form caught the same problems as the long one.
What they found
The 30-item BPI-S matched the original 92-a large share of the time. It flagged the same people who had high problem scores.
Statistical tests showed the short form is just as reliable. You lose no accuracy, only 19 questions.
How this fits with other research
Weiss et al. (2001) built the first BPI-01. The 2012 study shortens that tool while keeping its power.
Kleinert et al. (2007) proved the BPI-01 works in babies and toddlers. The short form should work there too, though it was not tested in very young kids.
Tsakanikos et al. (2011) made a different brief scale for disruptive and delinquent acts. Use BPI-S when you care about self-injury or stereotypy, and Elias’s DAS when you worry about rule-breaking.
Why it matters
Less time on paperwork means more time for treatment. Swap in the BPI-S during intake, quarterly reviews, or when caregiver fatigue is high. You get the same clinical picture in eight minutes instead of fifteen.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: The Behavior Problems Inventory-01 (BPI-01) is an informant-based behaviour rating instrument that was designed to assess maladaptive behaviours in individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID). Its items fall into one of three sub-scales: Self-injurious Behavior (14 items), Stereotyped Behavior (24 items), and Aggressive/Destructive Behavior (11 items). Each item is rated on a frequency scale (0 = never to 4 = hourly), and a severity scale (0 = no problem to 3 = severe problem). The BPI-01 has been successfully used in several studies and has shown acceptable to very good psychometric properties. One concern raised by some investigators was the large number of items on the BPI-01, which has reduced its user friendliness for certain applications. Furthermore, researchers and clinicians were often uncertain how to interpret their BPI-01 data without norms or a frame of reference. METHODS: The Behavior Problems Inventory-Short Form (BPI-S) was empirically developed, based on an aggregated archival data set of BPI-01 data from individuals with ID from nine locations in the USA, Wales, England, the Netherlands, and Romania (n = 1122). The BPI-S uses the same rating system and the same three sub-scales as the BPI-01, but has fewer items: Self-injurious Behavior (8 items), Stereotyped Behavior (12 items), and Aggressive/Destructive Behavior (10 items). Rating anchors for the severity scales of the Self-injurious Behavior and the Aggressive/Destructive Behavior sub-scales were added in an effort to enhance the objectivity of the ratings. RESULTS: The sensitivity of the BPI-S compared with the BPI-01 was high (0.92 to 0.99), and so were the correlations between the analogous BPI-01 and the BPI-S sub-scales (0.96 to 0.99). Means and standard deviations were generated for both BPI versions in a Sex-by-age matrix, and in a Sex-by-ID Level matrix. Combined sex ranges are also provided by age and level of ID. CONCLUSION: In summary, the BPI-S is a very useful alternative to the BPI-01, especially for research and evaluation purposes involving groups of individuals.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2012 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2011.01507.x