A Reliability Study on the Self-Report Behavioral Measure for Evaluating Therapeutic Outcome

Statement of the Problem Because the original reliability study using the Self-Report Behavioral Measure for Evaluating Therapeutic Outcomes (Behavioral Checklist) used college students as subjects, and since the target population for use with this instrument is a client population, there is a need for a reliability study using clients in treatment as subjects. Objective The objective of this study was to assess the reliability of the Behavioral Checklist using a client population. The secondary objective was to revise the Behavioral Checklist, if necessary, in order to meet the standards of reliability for testing instruments. Methods and Procedure Three reliability measures were implemented in order to evaluate and revise the Behavioral Checklist. An item analysis and split-half reliability analysis were conducted after one administration of Elliott\u27s Behavioral Checklist using a client population in treatment at a mental health center. Since these methods are measures of internal consistency, the statistical analyses were used to revise the instrument, eliminating unnecessary items and simplifying instructions based on the statistical analysis. The revised Behavioral Checklist was then administered to two subject populations (clients at a mental health center and people on probation) using the test-retest model for evaluating reliability. Findings of the Study The test-retest analysis resulted in correlations of .889 for the subject population drawn from a mental health center and .899 for the subject population drawn from probationers. Summary and Conclusions The current study did, in fact, improve the Behavioral Checklist, making it easy to administer, and demonstrated that it is a reliable instrument for use with a client population