Exploring the reliability and validity of the social-moral awareness test.
BACKGROUND
The aim of the study was to explore the validity of the social-moral awareness test (SMAT) a measure designed for assessing socio-moral rule knowledge and reasoning in people with learning disabilities. Comparisons between Theory of Mind and socio-moral reasoning allowed the exploration of construct validity of the tool. Factor structure, reliability and discriminant validity were also assessed.


METHODS
Seventy-one participants with mild-moderate learning disabilities completed the two scales of the SMAT and two False Belief Tasks for Theory of Mind.


RESULTS
Reliability of the SMAT was very good, and the scales were shown to be uni-dimensional in factor structure. There was a significant positive relationship between Theory of Mind and both SMAT scales.


CONCLUSIONS
There is early evidence of the construct validity and reliability of the SMAT. Further assessment of the validity of the SMAT will be required.
Department of Clinical Psychology, Royal Holloway College, University of London, London, UK. a_lives@hotmail.com
Alexandra
A
Livesey
Karen
K
Dodd
Helen
H
Pote
Elizabeth
E
Marlow
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001364:Awareness; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology*; D007360:Intelligence; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009014:Morals; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011581:Psychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D056345:Theory of Mind; D013850:Thinking