Parent Satisfaction With Early Intervention Services for Children With Physical Disabilities

Measuring parent satisfaction with services is essential in the evaluation of early intervention programs. However, there is a paucity of satisfaction measures specifically developed for this purpose, and the psychometric properties of existing measures have not been widely examined. The aim of this study was to further investigate the internal consistency of 1 such measure, the European Parent Satisfaction Scale about Early Intervention (EPASSEI). A slightly modified version of the EPASSEI was completed by 112 carers (mainly mothers) of children with physical disabilities receiving early intervention services in Queensland, Australia. Internal consistency of the measure was examined using the Cronbach α. Internal consistency among items was very high (the Cronbach α = .98), with little evidence of item redundancy. Individual subscales were also shown to have a high degree of internal consistency and internal consistency was similar across the 3 service provider organizations participating in this study. The present study examined the internal consistency of an instrument measuring parent satisfaction with early intervention services. While additional examination of the validity of the measure is required, this study lends further support to the use of this measure in evaluating early intervention services for children with physical disabilities.