Social validity assessment of behavior data recording among human services care providers
Community ID staff say behavior data is practical and valuable—capitalize on this buy-in with quick training and simple sheets.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Ricciardi and team asked 78 community staff how they feel about taking behavior data.
All staff worked with adults who have intellectual disability.
The survey asked: Is data recording practical? Did training help? Is the data useful?
What they found
Staff said yes, yes, and yes.
They rated practicality, training, and value all above 5 on a 6-point scale.
High scores held across age, education, and years on the job.
How this fits with other research
Malone (1999) found residential staff feel high stress. You might think extra data work would add to that load.
This study shows the same staff group actually welcomes data tasks when training is clear and tools are simple.
Lin et al. (2010) used the same survey style to show caregivers report moderate happiness. Ricciardi adds that useful data systems can protect, not harm, that wellbeing.
Oliver et al. (2002) proved training works only when matched to staff needs. Ricciardi confirms it: good training drives the high social validity scores.
Why it matters
You can stop worrying that data collection will overwhelm staff.
Use their buy-in. Start every new program with a 10-minute demo and a one-page data sheet.
When staff see the chart help the client, they keep recording. Let them vote on the format and they will stick with it.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Care providers within human services organizations have many job responsibilities and performance expectations. In the present study, we conducted social validity assessment with 78 care providers concerning their attitudes and opinions about behavior data recording with adults who had intellectual disability and lived in community group homes. Specifically, the care providers responded to a written questionnaire that inquired about the practicality, training/supervision, and value of behavior data recording in the context of service delivery. Results indicated generally high approval of behavior data recording practices, purposes, and approaches to training. We discuss implications of these findings for implementing data recording by care providers and the contribution of social validity assessment to training and performance management within human services organizations.
Behavioral Interventions, 2020 · doi:10.1002/bin.1730