Skills Assessment for Parents with Intellectual Disability (SAPID)
Description / Purpose:
The Skills Assessment for Parents with Intellectual Disability (SAPID) assesses parenting skills in parents with intellectual disabilities in a clinical setting. The measure has 3 subscales: Overall Safety, Parent-Child Interactions, and Daily Life Skills. For Overall Safety, there are 20 items; Parent-Child Interactions has 26 items; and Daily Life Skills has 37 items. Overall Safety focuses on behaviors related to safety and saying 911. Parent-Child Interactions include behaviors related to tracking observations, giving directions, decreasing negative behavior, giving praise, and rewarding behavior. Daily Life Skills include behavior related to planning, problem-solving, child cleanliness, and budgeting. Each item is scored as 1 if the parent is able to demonstrate the skill (or accurately describe what to do in the case of some safety items, such as knowing that 911 is the number to call in emergencies) or 0 if the parent is unable to demonstrate the skill. While there is no set cutpoint for the scores, higher scores are indicative of a better demonstration of parenting skills, and increases in scores from the initial Time Point to subsequent Time Points indicate an improvement in parenting skills. Additionally, it is not intended to be used as an independent assessment tool, but rather to supplement clinical interventions with parents with intellectual disabilities.
Target Population: Parents with intellectual disabilities who are living with their children under the age of 18. This assessment tool was developed specifically for families who have had open child welfare cases.
Time to Administer: This should be done over time during the assessment and treatment periods.
Completed By: A Master’s level clinician (in social work or a related field) who is evaluating parenting skills prior to or during the process of working with parents
Modalities Available: Pen and Paper
Scoring Information: Currently, the instrument is hand-scored.
Languages Available:
Training Requirements for Intended Users: Master’s Level in Social Work (or related field)
Availability: Copies are obtained upon request by contacting Dr. Rao (contact information below).
Contact Information
- Company: Westchester Institute for Human Development
- Name: Dr. Trupti Rao
- Email: TRao@wihd.org
- Phone: (914) 493-1022
- Fax: (914) 493-1134
Summary of Relevant Psychometric Research
This tool has received the Measurement Tools Rating of "B – Psychometrics Demonstrated" based on the published, peer-reviewed research available. The tool must have 1 published, peer-reviewed study that has established the measure’s psychometrics (e.g., reliability and validity, sensitivity and specificity, etc.). Please see the Measurement Tools Rating Scale for more information.
Augsberger, A., Zeitlin, W., Rao, T., Weisberg, D., & Toraif, N. (2021). Examining a child welfare parenting intervention for parents with intellectual disabilities. Research on Social Work Practice, 31(1), 65–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731520958489
Sample:
Participants — N=133 parents enrolled in the Project IMPACT prevention program for parents with intellectual disabilities (ID), 89% of whom had previous child protective services involvement.
Race/Ethnicity — 47% Black, Non-Hispanic, 40% Hispanic, and 13% White, Non-Hispanic
Summary:
This study reported the reliability of the Skills Assessment for Parents with Intellectual Disability (SAPID), an observational instrument completed to assess parents with ID with child welfare involvement. Parenting skills were measured by the clients’ social worker primarily through observing whether parents were able to demonstrate up to 113 behaviors associated with skills needed for safe parenting (e.g., knowing when and how to contact a doctor, recognizing and knowing how to decrease a child’s negative behavior) across three subscales: Parent–Child Interactions, Daily Life Skills, and Overall Safety. At baseline, coefficient α for the Parent–Child Interactions subscale was .81; for Daily Life Skills, it was .68; and for Overall Safety, it was .66.
Zeitlin, W., Augsberger, A., Rao, T., Weisberg, D., & Toraif, N. (2021). Measuring parenting skills: Validating the skills assessment for parents with intellectual disability. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 18(2), 235–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/26408066.2020.1830909
Sample:
Participants — N=133 parents enrolled in the Project IMPACT prevention program for parents with intellectual disabilities (ID), 89% of whom had previous child protective services involvement.
Race/Ethnicity — 47% Black, Non-Hispanic, 40% Hispanic, and 13% White, Non-Hispanic
Summary:
This study examined the validity of the Skills Assessment for Parents with Intellectual Disability (SAPID), an observational instrument completed to assess parents with ID with child welfare involvement. The SAPID assessed clients’ parenting skills at four time points: at intake, when a skill was learned, at discharge, and three months post-discharge. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to understand the validity of the SAPID. Predictive validity was assessed by examining change over time with two outcomes: out-of-home placement (measured using administrative data) and program completion. Results indicate that the SAPID consisted of three latent constructs: daily life skills, parent–child interaction, and overall safety. Parenting skills across all domains significantly improved for families remaining intact and those completing the program. High factor loadings in the CFA combined with small standard errors, which ranged from 0.05 to 0.08 for observed variables across all latent constructs are indicative of convergent validity. Additionally, the covariances between each of the latent constructs indicate the independence of one from the other, indicative of discriminant validity between the subscales.
Date Reviewed: March 2024 (Originally reviewed in March 2024)
