Reliability of the Family Impact of Assistive Technology Scale for Families of Young Children with Cerebral Palsy
By Ryan, Stephen E.; Campbell, Kent A.; Rignby, Patricia J.; Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Vol. 88, No. 11, pp. 1436-1440Publication Date: November 2007
Study examined the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the Family Impact of Assistive Technology Scale (FIATS) when used to measure the perceptions of parents of young children with cerebral palsy (CP). The FIATS, designed to measure the impact of assistive technology use on the families who have young children with disabilities, was administered twice during home visits with 50 parents of children with CP. Through an a priori item-reduction process, the length of the FIATS was reduced from 89 to 64 items and from 9 to 8 subscales. The 8 subscales included the following: autonomy, caregiver relief, contentment, doing activities, effort, family and social interaction, caregiver supervision, and safety. Remaining items of the removed subscale (technology acceptance) correlated well with the subscale total, but did not relate well to the FIATS total score. The overall FIATS and its 8 contributing subscales showed acceptable internal consistencies and test-retest reliabilities.
Published by: W.B. Saunders Company, a division of Elsevier Health Sciences (Website:http://us.elsevierhealth.com)
American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (Web Site: http://www.aapmr.org/ )
American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (Web Site: http://www.acrm.org )
