The controllability beliefs scale used with carers of people with intellectual disabilities: psychometric properties.
The 15-item Controllability Beliefs Scale is a quick, reliable way to see if carers blame the person for challenging behavior.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a short 15-item survey called the Controllability Beliefs Scale.
Carers of people with intellectual disabilities answered the same questions twice, weeks apart.
Researchers checked if scores stayed steady and if the items hung together.
What they found
The scale held up. Items matched each other and people scored about the same on both tries.
The tool is ready for clinics and research.
How this fits with other research
Koegel et al. (2014) asked mothers the same core question—"Can the person control the behavior?"—but used quick rating scales instead of the CBS. Their mothers who said "yes, controllable" showed more criticism and less warmth, echoing the need for a solid measure.
Hogg et al. (1995) first mapped staff attributions with open questions and found wide, messy beliefs. The CBS tightens that chaos into one tidy number you can track over time.
Giesbers et al. (2020) also validated a new IDD questionnaire, the Social Vulnerability Questionnaire. Both papers show the field moving past ad-hoc forms to brief, psychometrically clean tools.
Why it matters
You can now open an intake packet, hand the CBS to any carer, and get a reliable snapshot of how much blame they place on the person. If the score is high, pause before teaching PBS—add attribution training first. The scale is free, short, and evidence-based, so you can start Monday.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Beliefs about the controllability of behaviour have been consistently shown to be important in understanding the responses of carers to the challenging behaviour of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs). This paper reports the reliability and validity of the controllability beliefs scale (CBS), a 15-item measure of beliefs regarding the controllability of challenging behaviour when used with carers of people with IDs. METHODS: Two hundred and sixty-four carers of people with IDs completed the CBS, 74 people also completed the modified attributional style questionnaire and the self-injury behavioural understanding questionnaire scale to determine concurrent and convergent validity and 34 people completed the scale twice within a 2- to 4-week period to determine test-retest reliability. RESULTS: The scale has a two-factor structure and has adequate internal reliable. The scale is significantly correlated with the controllability, internality and stability items from the Modified Attributional Style Questionnaire, showed expected associations with behavioural and internal emotional understanding items from the self-injury behavioural understanding questionnaire. The scale has good test-retest reliability. CONCLUSIONS: The data support use of the CBS in clinical practice and research to assess carers' beliefs regarding challenging behaviour of people with IDs.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2013 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2012.01554.x