The Behavioral Assessment Scale: A Measure of Community Living Skills

This study reports the development of a community living skills measure of long-term care AIDS residents. Community living skills impact numbers and types of care providers needed. The Behavioral Assessment Scale (BAS) used multiple sources of validity evidence to ensure community living skills construct representation. The BAS was piloted in four diverse long-term care facilities. Nurses rated residents using the BAS and the Nurse Perception Scale (NPS)—another community living skills measure. Researchers rated residents’ community living skills through medical record notations (Interdisciplinary Notation Scale [INS]). Reliability coefficients over .6 (p < .001) were reported for the BAS in both the total sample and the individual samples. Evidence-based validity of the BAS was obtained via coefficients from the total sample (.422 [BAS and INS] and .526 [BAS and NPS], with p < .001 for both relationships), Cronbach’s alpha (.851 for all community living skills tools), analysis of variance, and regression results. The BAS was substantiated for long-term care practice with AIDS residents.

Key words: HIV/AIDS, behavioral assessment, long-term care facilities, community living skills, patient classification systems