There have been few studies on the assessment ofpsychopathology in people with severe and profound mental retardation. In this study we report the factor structure of the Diagnostic Assessment for the Severely Handicapped-II (DASH II) in a large sample of adults in an institutional setting. We found 5 factors that were named Emotional Lability/Antisocial, Language Disorder, Dementia/Anxiety, Sleep Disorder, and Psychosis. Scales derived from this factor analysis were internally consistent and showed good evidence of convergent and discriminant validity with the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC), MESSIER, and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS). The factor structure observed here was broadly similar to that of the original DASH. Implications for future research are identified.
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