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Goal Attainment Scaling as an Outcome Measure in Randomized Controlled Trials of Psychosocial Interventions in Autism

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Abstract

Goal attainment scaling (GAS) holds promise as an idiographic approach for measuring outcomes of psychosocial interventions in community settings. GAS has been criticized for untested assumptions of scaling level (i.e., interval or ordinal), inter-individual equivalence and comparability, and reliability of coding across different behavioral observation methods. We tested assumptions of equality between GAS descriptions for outcome measurement in a randomized trial (i.e., measurability, equidistance, level of difficulty, comparability of behavior samples collected from teachers vs. researchers and live vs. videotape). Results suggest GAS descriptions can be evaluated for equivalency, that teacher collected behavior samples are representative, and that varied sources of behavior samples can be reliably coded. GAS is a promising measurement approach. Recommendations are provided to ensure methodological quality.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Grant Numbers R34MH073071 and 1RC1MH089760 from the National Institute of Mental Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Mental Health or the National Institutes of Health. We are grateful to Nancy Dalrymple, co-developer of the COMPASS framework and to the teachers, families, and children who generously donated their time and effort. We wish to thank Rachel Aiello, Jessie Birdwhistell, Ryan Johnson, and Jennifer Hoffman for data coding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology, University of Kentucky, 237 Dickey Hall, Lexington, KY, 40506-0017, USA

    Lisa Ruble & Michael D. Toland

  2. Department of Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    John H. McGrew

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  1. Lisa Ruble
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  2. John H. McGrew
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  3. Michael D. Toland
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Correspondence to Lisa Ruble.

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Ruble, L., McGrew, J.H. & Toland, M.D. Goal Attainment Scaling as an Outcome Measure in Randomized Controlled Trials of Psychosocial Interventions in Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 42, 1974–1983 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1446-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1446-7

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