Development and Psychometric Properties of the Detection of Sexual Abuse Risk Screening Scale (DSARss)

People with intellectual disability (ID) are more vulnerable to being victims of sexual abuse (SA) because, in most cases, they are not able to detect the warning signs that abuse could occur. However, there is a lack of appropriate assessment tools to determine their vulnerability. To address this limitation, the current study tests the psychometric properties of the Detection of Sexual Abuse Risk Screening Scale (DSARss), a new scale developed to assess the ability of individuals with mild or moderate ID to detect the risk of SA. In all, 246 individuals with mild or moderate ID (55.3% males) completed the DSARss, along with other scales assessing related dimensions (e.g., psychopathological symptoms, quality of live). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) yielded a four-factor structure explaining 65.34% of the total variance in the DSARss. Two independent EFAs in males and females were also performed to confirm the suitability of this four-factor structure according to gender. The reliability of the total score and subscales ranged between .70 and .93. Likewise, correlations with other related scales were positive and significant. Temporal stability 6 months after the first application was .47. Finally, we explored the criterion-related validity of the DSARss across different SA indicators. These results, along with the absence of sound questionnaires to assess the risk of SA in people with ID, justify the use of the DSARss to assess this construct in both men and women.

[1]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[2]  B. Loyd,et al.  Characteristics of Persons with Mental Retardation who have been Abused by Caregivers , 1987 .

[3]  D Finkelhor,et al.  Sexual abuse in a national survey of adult men and women: prevalence, characteristics, and risk factors. , 1990, Child abuse & neglect.

[4]  N. Brewer,et al.  The incidence of criminal victimisation of individuals with an intellectual disability , 1992 .

[5]  M. Hardy.  Regression with dummy variables , 1993 .

[6]  P. Abramson,et al.  The law hath not been dead: protecting adults with mental retardation from sexual abuse and violation of their sexual freedom. , 1995, Mental retardation.

[7]  R. Miltenberger,et al.  Evaluation of a sexual abuse prevention program for adults with mental retardation. , 1998, Journal of applied behavior analysis.

[8]  C. Tang,et al.  Knowledge on sexual abuse and self-protection skills: a study on female Chinese adolescents with mild mental retardation. , 1999, Child abuse & neglect.

[9]  M. McCarthy.  Sexuality and Women with Learning Disabilities , 1999 .

[10]  J. Aylott.  Preventing rape and sexual assault of people with learning disabilities. , 1999, British journal of nursing.

[11]  R. Cummins,et al.  Construction and psychometric properties of sexuality scales: sex knowledge, experience, and needs scales for people with intellectual disabilities (SexKen-ID), people with physical disabilities (SexKen-PD), and the general population (SexKen-GP). , 1999, Research in developmental disabilities.

[12]  Robert D. Tortora,et al.  Sampling: Design and Analysis , 2000 .

[13]  M. McCarthy.  Women with Learning Disabilities — Experiencing their Sexuality in a Healthy Way , 2001 .

[14]  Maliha S. Nash,et al.  Handbook of Parametric and Nonparametric Statistical Procedures , 2001, Technometrics.

[15]  T. Berney,et al.  Sexual abuse in children and adolescents with intellectual disability. , 2001, Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR.

[16]  Christina Paparestis.  Women with Learning Disabilities — Experiencing their Sexuality in a Healthy Way , 2001 .

[17]  W. Lindsay,et al.  Research and literature on sex offenders with intellectual and developmental disabilities. , 2002, Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR.

[18]  J. de Pina-Cabral,et al.  World , 2004, Science.

[19]  S. Ailey,et al.  Promoting sexuality across the life span for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. , 2003, The Nursing clinics of North America.

[20]  J. Raubenheimer.  AN ITEM SELECTION PROCEDURE TO MAXIMISE SCALE RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY , 2004 .

[21]  A. Astell,et al.  Predictors of Sexual Offence Recidivism in Offenders with Intellectual Disabilities. , 2004 .

[22]  D. Boer,et al.  Assessment of Risk Manageability of Intellectually Disabled Sex Offenders , 2004 .

[23]  Anne Power,et al.  Investigating Sexual Abuse: Findings of a 15‐Year Longitudinal Study , 2005 .

[24]  W. Maclean,et al.  A review of the reliability and validity of Likert-type scales for people with intellectual disability. , 2006, Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR.

[25]  D. McLaughlin,et al.  An exploration of substance misuse in people with intellectual disabilities. , 2006, Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR.

[26]  S. Reiter,et al.  Adolescents with intellectual disabilities as victims of abuse , 2007, Journal of intellectual disabilities : JOID.

[27]  S. Pan.  Prevalence of sexual abuse of people with intellectual disabilities in Taiwan. , 2007, Intellectual and developmental disabilities.

[28]  G. Eastgate.  Sexual health for people with intellectual disability. , 2008, Salud publica de Mexico.

[29]  Amy Swango-Wilson.  Perception of Sex Education for Individuals with Developmental and Cognitive Disability: A Four Cohort Study , 2009 .

[30]  K. Karabekiroğlu,et al.  Characteristics of Sexual Abuse in a Sample of Turkish Children With and Without Mental Retardation, Referred for Legal Appraisal of the Psychological Repercussions , 2009 .

[31]  Paul D. Ellis,et al.  The essential guide to effect sizes : statistical power, meta-analysis, and the interpretation of research results , 2010 .

[32]  J. R. Scotti,et al.  Sexual Abuse Prevention: A Training Program for Developmental Disabilities Service Providers , 2010, Journal of child sexual abuse.

[33]  A. H. Doughty,et al.  Teaching abuse-protection skills to people with intellectual, disabilities: a review of the literature. , 2010, Research in developmental disabilities.

[34]  J. Beadle‐Brown,et al.  Adult Protection of People with Intellectual Disabilities: Incidence, Nature and Responses. , 2010 .

[35]  L. Hendriks,et al.  Sexual risk assessment for people with intellectual disabilities. , 2010, Research in developmental disabilities.

[36]  E. Walker,et al.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , 2013 .

[37]  N. Lennox,et al.  Women with intellectual disabilities--a study of sexuality, sexual abuse and protection skills. , 2011, Australian family physician.

[38]  J. Beadle‐Brown,et al.  Patterns of Risk in Adult Protection Referrals for Sexual Abuse and People with Intellectual Disability , 2011 .

[39]  B. McGuire,et al.  Relationships, sexuality and decision-making capacity in people with an intellectual disability , 2011, Current opinion in psychiatry.

[40]  Amy Swango-Wilson.  Meaningful Sex Education Programs for Individuals with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities , 2011 .

[41]  Mark A Bellis,et al.  Prevalence and risk of violence against children with disabilities: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies , 2012, The Lancet.

[42]  J. Ruscio,et al.  Determining the number of factors to retain in an exploratory factor analysis using comparison data of known factorial structure. , 2012, Psychological assessment.

[43]  Mário Basto,et al.  An SPSS R-Menu for Ordinal Factor Analysis , 2012 .

[44]  S. Cooper,et al.  Social exclusion and people with intellectual disabilities: a rural-urban comparison. , 2013, Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR.

[45]  R. Hussain,et al.  Rural and Remote Area Service Provision for People Aging With Intellectual Disability , 2013 .

[46]  Matthew Courtney,et al.  Determining the Number of Factors to Retain in EFA: Using the SPSS R-Menu v2 0 to Make More Judicious Estimations , 2013 .

[47]  R. Hussain,et al.  Impediments to community-based care for people ageing with intellectual disability in rural New South Wales. , 2014, Health & social care in the community.

[48]  Gjalt-Jorn Peters,et al.  The alpha and the omega of scale reliability and validity: Why and how to abandon Cronbach’s alpha and the route towards more comprehensive assessment of scale quality , 2014 .

[49]  Wen-Ying Liou.  An Illustrated Scale Measuring the Sexual‐Abuse Prevention Knowledge of Female High School Students with Intellectual Disabilities in Taiwan , 2014 .

[50]  A. Esbensen,et al.  Residential transitions among adults with intellectual disability across 20 years. , 2014, American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities.

[51]  M. Martinet,et al.  Sexual abuse and intellectual disability: Awareness for a better intervention ☆ , 2014 .

[52]  Brenda Happell,et al.  On exploratory factor analysis: a review of recent evidence, an assessment of current practice, and recommendations for future use. , 2014, International journal of nursing studies.

[53]  S. Wilczynski,et al.  Assessment, Prevention, and Intervention for Abuse among Individuals with Disabilities. , 2015 .

[54]  M. Verdugo,et al.  Validity and reliability of the INICO-FEAPS Scale: An assessment of quality of life for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. , 2015, Research in developmental disabilities.

[55]  Estimaciones de la población rural y urbana a nivel municipal ( , 2015 .

[56]  V. Quiroz,et al.  El abuso sexual en personas con discapacidad intelectual atendidas en la unidad de peritaje integral de la fiscalía desde septiembre del 2012 hasta septiembre del 2013 , 2015 .

[57]  G. Stams,et al.  Sexual abuse involving children with an intellectual disability (ID): a narrative review. , 2015, Research in developmental disabilities.

[58]  Raquel Suriá Martínez.  Relación entre autoconcepto y perfiles de resiliencia en jóvenes con discapacidad , 2016 .

[59]  M. Bakermans-Kranenburg,et al.  The Prevalence of Child Sexual Abuse in Out-of-home Care: Increased Risk for Children with a Mild Intellectual Disability. , 2016, Journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities : JARID.

[60]  R. Martínez.  Relationships between self-concept and resilience profiles in young people with disabilities , 2016 .

[61]  Vicente Morell-Mengual,et al.  Sexualidad y abuso sexual en hombres y mujeres con discapacidad intelectual , 2016 .

[62]  M. Mitra,et al.  Prevalence and Characteristics of Sexual Violence Against Men with Disabilities. , 2016, American journal of preventive medicine.

[63]  P. Ferrando,et al.  Program FACTOR at 10: Origins, development and future directions , 2017, Psicothema.

[64]  Gizem Yıldız,et al.  Effectiveness of a Sexual Education Program for Mothers of Young Adults with Intellectual Disabilities on Mothers’ Attitudes Toward Sexual Education and the Perception of Social Support , 2016, Sexuality and Disability.

[65]  A. Vadysinghe,et al.  A study on sexual violence inflicted on individuals with intellectual developmental disorder. , 2017, Disability and health journal.

[66]  G. Kok,et al.  People with Intellectual Disabilities Talk About Sexuality: Implications for the Development of Sex Education , 2016, Sexuality and disability.

[67]  R. Ballester-Arnal,et al.  The experience of sexuality in adults with intellectual disability , 2018, Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR.

[68]  R. Ballester-Arnal,et al.  Prevalence and sequelae of self‐reported and other‐reported sexual abuse in adults with intellectual disability , 2018, Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR.