Objective: There are few reliable and valid methods for assessing emotional constructs in adults with severe and profound learning disabilities who are unable to self report. The aims of this study were to develop an informant questionnaire on affect for use in relation to adults with severe and profound learning disabilities and to examine its psychometric properties.
Method: The Mood, Interest & Pleasure Questionnaire (MIPQ) is a 25-item Likert scale questionnaire with two subscales (mood and interest & pleasure). The MIPQ and the Aberrant Behavior Checklist were completed on 53 participants with severe or profound learning disabilities, who were partly or non-verbal. Of these, 23 participants (43%) were included in an examination of test-retest and inter-rater reliability of the MIPQ.
Results: Reliability of the MIPQ was good for subscales and total score: test-retest and inter-rater reliability coefficients for the total score were .87 and .76, respectively. Internal consistency was excellent (.94). A significant correlation between the MIPQ total score and the Aberrant Behavior Checklist's 'lethargy, social withdrawal' subscale provided preliminary evidence of construct validity (r (48) = -.59, p < .001).
Conclusions: A preliminary analysis of the psychometric properties of the MIPQ is encouraging and further validation of the measure is warranted. The measure might be used to examine depression in people with severe and profound learning disabilities as well as in investigations of issues such as quality of life.