| Abstract: | Increased attention to the construct of social validity in school psychology research and practice has resulted in a focus on treatment acceptability, the extent to which interventions are considered appropriate, effective, and fair. Questionnaires represent the typical measurement approach to treatment acceptability. This article reviews treatment acceptability measures and practices that have been developed and used to assess the social validity of behavioral interventions. A comparative framework was developed and applied to provide a systematic critique of 9 treatment acceptability measures along such dimensions as content and purpose of the instrument, psychometric properties, scoring procedures and interpretation, and use of the measure in research in practice. No one instrument was selected to be the most comprehensive and it is argued that treatment acceptability assessment practices need to move beyond the traditional questionnaire format. Alternatives to rating scales are presented and directions for future research regarding the measurement of treatment acceptability are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) |
