Psychometric Evaluation of the Attune & Stimulate-Checklist for Assessing the Emotional State of People With Severe to Profound Intellectual Disabilities

Background: In response to the lack of well-validated observation-instruments assessing the emotions of people with severe to profound intellectual disabilities, the Attune & Stimulate-checklist (A&S-checklist) was psychometrically evaluated. Method: Video recordings of 102 adults with severe to profound intellectual disabilities were scored with the A&S-checklist. Related constructs were assessed through proxy-questionnaires and physiological measurement. Results: Good inter-rater (ICC = 0.77–0.83) and moderate to good test–retest reliability (ICC = 0.70–0.81) were found, except for one seldomly scored A&S-category. Moderate to strong associations were found between observed emotional states and informant reports of emotional functioning, adaptive functioning, communication and influence, and mood (r = 0.27–0.51; p < 0.05), except for negative mood. A&S-checklist-arousal was not statistically associated with skin conductance. Conclusions: The A&S-checklist showed adequate psychometric properties, making assessment of emotion more feasible. The lack of a straightforward link with physiologically measured arousal invites further investigation. Trial Registration: This study was pre-registered on Open Science Framework in the project https://osf.io/pba92 (Doodeman et al. 2020, August 27). The link to this registration is: Doodeman, T. W. M., Sterkenburg, P., & Schuengel, C. (2020, August 27). The Construct and Convergent Validity of the ‘Attune & Stimulate’ checklist for parents and caregivers of persons with severe intellectual disabilities. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/PBA92.