Pre-Normative Study of the (Turkish Vineland – II) Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales – II (Turkish Vineland – II) Başak Alpas1, Melda Akçakın1, Gulsen Erden2, Sait Uluç3 1Ankara University, School of Medicine, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department, Ankara, TURKEY 2Ankara University, Faculty of Letters, Psychology Department, Ankara, TURKEY 3Hacettepe University, Faculty of Letters, Psychology Department, Ankara, TURKEY abstract The goal for the pre-normative study of the Vineland-II – Survey Form was to examine the reliability and the validity in Turkish children from birth to the age of 9. The reliability for the domains and / or subdomains of the Turkish Vineland II demonstrated the internal consistency (in the range of .81 and .91), the test-retest (range from .92 to .99), and the interinterviewer methods (range from .99 to 100). The evidence for the test content validity of the Turkish Vineland – II domains and the subdomains shown that the mean scores increased by age. resultS ; RELIABILITY aım The reliability of the Turkish Vineland – II demonstrated in 3 methods: 1.Internal Consistency: The mean split-half reliabilities for Turkish Vineland - II domains and subdomains were generally high ranged from .81 to .91(only lower at ages 1 through 2 for the Community S.). 2. Test-retest Reliability: The test-retest reliability coefficients of the Turkish Vineland – II subdomains were determined very high ranging from .92 to .99 for 8 age groups. The interval between occasions ranged from 10 to 29 days. 3. Inter-interviewer Reliability: The Vineland – II subdomain reliabilities were demonstrated range from .99 to 100 in the same occasions by two different examiners (See Table I- II). Due to the widely use and the requirements in infant and child psychology and psychiatry fields, the second edition of the Vineland is targeted to gain Turkey in 2005. ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR The pre-norm and the clinical study of the Vineland II were supported by Ankara University Scientific Research Center under the grant no: 20030809172 Doll defined adaptive behavior as “the functional ability of the human organism for exercising personal independence and social responsibility” (Doll, 1953). Table I: Internal Consistency of the Turkish Vineland - II Split-Half Reliability Coefficients for Domains, Subdomains by Age   Age Period N Recep- tive Expres sive Written Communi-cation Domain Per-sonal Domestic Com-munity Daily Living Skills Domain Inter-personal Relationship Play and Leisure Time Coping Skills Social-ization Domain Gross Fine Motor Skill Domain 0 – 11 176 0,81 0,84 _ 0,82 0,80 0,89 0,72 0,95 0,93 0,94 12 - 23 75 0,91 0,88 0,85 0,61 0,78 0,86 0,657 0,97 0,83 0,90 24 - 35 61 0,96 0,92 0,74 0,845 0,87 36 - 47 62 0,71 0,894 48 - 59 70 0,77 0,898 60 - 71 65 0,952 0,75 72 - 83 68 0,951 0,73 84 - 95 82 0,76 0,959 96-107 66 0,941   Mean 725 INTRODUCtION resultS : VALIDITY In 1888, Vineland Training School was opened as the third institution for the education and care for feeble-minded children so they can live independently by Olin Garrison in Vineland, New Jersey. Edgar Doll (1935, 1965) was the first person to stress the importance of adaptive behavior (social competence or social maturity), with his PhD thesis, developed the Vineland Social Maturity Scale (VSMS). Sara Sparrow, David Balla and Domenic Cicchetti (1984, 2005) which psychologists of Yale Child Study Center were developed the items of VSMS and published their first and second editions of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, respectively. In Turkey, the adaptation, reliability, and the validity studies of the first edition of the Vineland were investigated for Turkish infants from birth to 4-year-olds by Alpas and Akcakin in 2003. Test Content Validity: Evidence of the Turkish Vineland – II Test Content Validity demonstrated by the mean scores of the domain and the subdomain increase rapidly from one age group to the next. According to the theoretical structure, the adaptive behaviors and skills of individual typically acquired developmentally (See Table III) Note: Split-half reliability coefficients are corrected for half-test length by the Spearman-Brown formula Table II: Test Retest and Interinterviewer Reliability Coefficients for the Turkish Vineland – II Subdomains Vineland II Subdomains Test Retest Correlation Pearson r Inter-interviewer Correlation Ages 1-6 N = 37 (21 girls, 16 boys) N = 21 (10 girls, 11 boys) Receptive .923 .998 Expressive .995 100 Written .987 .999 Personal .991 Domestic .939 Community .992 Interpersonal .977 Play and Leisure .971 Coping Skills .978 .997 Ages 7-8 N = 20 (7 girls, 13 boys) N = 8 (3 girls, 5 boys) Gross Motor .968 Fine Motor .963 Communication Domain Daily Living Skills Domain Socialization Domain Motor Skills Domain Adaptive Behavior Composite Ages 7 through 90 Ages birth through 6 Figure I: Structure of the CONCLUSIONS Note: The respondents are selected from pre-normative Turkish Vineland – II sample who accepted the application methods for the test retest and interinterviewer reliability study. MEtHOD The results of these pre-normative study shows that the Turkish Vineland – II for Turkish children birth to the age of 9, a reliable tool in the assessment of children’s adaptive behavior. With use of the Turkish Vineland – II is expected to enrich the studies in the child psychology and development fields, and the assessments for the daily adaptive functioning of primary school and pre-school children, and the infants who cared for at home or kindergarten. Table III: Means and Standart Deviations of the Turkish Vineland – II Subdomains Raw Scores, by Age The eleven Vineland-II subdomains are grouped into four domain composites: Communication, Daily Living Skills, Socialization, and Motor Skills (See Figure I) By the semistructured interview method, the pre-normative data were collected by supervised 28 examiners (clinical psychologists, psychology 4th grade student, and child development specialist) in 20 to 40 minutes. AGE N Communication Daily Living Skills Socialization Motor Skills Receptive Expressive Written Personal Domestic Community Inter- personal Play and Leisure Coping Skills Gross Fine Mean SD 0 - 11 176 8,6 2,9 11,7 3,5 - 5,4 3,4 17,3 6,1 5,6 2,3 7,1 6,2 7,2 5,2 12 - 23 75 17,9 25 6,9 16,2 6,4 3,6 3,2 3,9 1,9 28,9 4,2 13,4 3,1 2,2 37,2 12,7 20,6 4,7 24 - 35 61 26,7 4,6 50,8 15,2 ,07 ,5 32,4 10 8,4 35,9 20,9 6,8 7 5,3 56,5 7,5 29,9 11 36 - 47 62 33 76,3 12,5 2,1 49,8 8,1 14,4 45,5 7,4 30,7 14 7,6 66,9 9,8 40,0 11,5 48 - 59 70 36,5 82,5 11,9 4,9 4,4 52,6 5 19,9 47,6 8,5 36 17 8,2 73,2 48,5 9,7 60 - 71 65 38,3 3,3 91 8,7 10, 63,3 6 27,1 7,8 43 4,8 25,4 75,2 58,8 7,9 72 - 83 68 38,8 99,9 25,5 67,1 5,1 39,1 13,2 65,6 6,5 47 38 12,6 76,8 2,6 84 - 95 82 38,9 104,2 4,5 37,9 71,8 26 58,2 9,2 68,6 52 3,8 42 96 -107 66 38,4 104,4 72,5 25,6 58,5 9,5 67,7 44 725 30,8 13,1 3,7 47,9 13,8 48,2 33,2 21,1 61,4 46,3 5,9 Note: The Motor Skills Domain is not applied for children aged 7 and older. The starting point of the Written Subdomain is 3 years of age, and the starting points of the Domestic, Community, Coping Skills Subdomains are 1 year of age. REFERENCES Alpas, B., & Akçakın, M. (2003). The adaptation, reliability and validity studies of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales – Survey Form – (Vineland – I) for Turkish Infants. Turkish Journal of Psychology, 18 (52), 57-76. Doll, E. A. (1965). Vineland Social Maturity Scale. AGS. Sparrow, S. S., Balla, D. A. & Cicchetti, D. V. (1984). Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales - Survey Form-. Circle Pines, Minn: AGS. Sparrow, S. S., Balla, D. A., & Cicchetti, D. V. (2005). Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales - Survey Form (Second Version). Circle Pines, Minn: AGS. Communication Domain Daily Living Skills Domain Socialization Domain Motor Skills Domain Adaptive Behavior Composite Ages 7 through 90 Ages birth through 6 Figure I: Structure of the SAMPLE The pre-normative sample consisted of 725 children (354 girls, 370 boys) in 9 age groups. The normally developing children selected from representing three different university hospitals, mother-child health centers for family planning, primary schools and kindergartens in Ankara. The mothers’ education levels served as the measure of the SES into four groups: 5th grade or lower (207 children); 8th grade (56 children); 11th grade (225 children); 2- and 4-year university degree or higher (230 children).