Primary Image

Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales

Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales

Last Updated

Atomized Content

download

Purpose

The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS) (Vineland-3) is a standardized assessment tool that utilizes semi-structured interview to measure adaptive behavior and support the diagnosis of intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism, and developmental delays. It may be used to determine eligibility or qualification for special services, plan rehabilitation or intervention programs, and track and report progress.

Link to Instrument

Acronym VABS

Area of Assessment

Communication
Activities of Daily Living
Social Relationships
Developmental

Assessment Type

Other

Administration Mode

Paper & Pencil

Cost

Not Free

Cost Description

Manual Scoring Kit starting at $228
-Vineland-3 Manual
-One package (5) each of 7 forms

Web-based Administration Kits starting at $206
-Vineland-3 Domain Level Reports Q-Global Kit
-1-Year Subscription to online scoring
-One package (25) of each of 7 English forms

Comprehensive and Complete Kits are also available at a higher cost

Key Descriptions

  • Items in each domain are placed in developmental order and rated on a 0, 1, 2, scale:
    -2 (Behavior is usually or habitually performed)
    -1 (sometimes or partly performed)
    -0 (never performed)
    A few items are rated 2 for Yes or 0 for No
  • Survey Interview Form
    ○ Comprehensive and Domain Levels
    ○ Semi-structured interview technique to elicit information about the examinee’s adaptive functioning from a parent or caregiver (brochure)
  • Parent/Caregiver Rating Form
    ○ Age ranges covered: birth-90+
    ○ Comprehensive & Domain Levels
    ○ Asks about home and family-life behavior using a questionnaire format
  • Teacher Rating Form
    ○ Age ranges covered: 3-21
    ○ Comprehensive and Domain Levels
    ○ Collects a teacher’s experience with adaptive behavior in school, preschool, or in a structured daycare setting
  • Scores can be entered directly into Q-Global software or manually entered later. Scoring can also be done manually. scoring

Number of Items

Survey Interview Form
-Comprehensive = 502 items
-Domain = 195 items

Parent/Caregiver Rating Form
-Comprehensive = 502 items
-Domain = 180 items

Teacher Rating Form
-Comprehensive = 333 items
-Domain = 149 items

Time to Administer

20-90 minutes

Interview Edition: Expanded Form 60–90 minutes; Survey Form 20–60 minutes, Classroom Edition: 20 minutes

Required Training

Training Course

Age Ranges

Survey Interview Form

0 - 90

years

Teacher Rating Form

3 - 21

years

Instrument Reviewers

Alexandra Newark, OTS, UIC

Ashley Vincent, OTS, UIC

Brielle Seitelman, OTS, UIC

Ruth Glass, OTS, UIC

ICF Domain

Activity
Participation

Measurement Domain

Activities of Daily Living
Cognition
Motor

Professional Association Recommendation

The VABS has been recommended for use as a measure of adaptive functioning by the World Health Organization (1994) and the Royal College of Psychiatrists (2001).

Considerations

  • Online administration is available for both VABS-II and VABS-3 on Q-global?, a secure online testing platform, which also provides computerized scoring and reporting. The online Interview Form can be completed on a computer or a tablet. The Parent/Caregiver and Teacher Forms may be completed on a computer, tablet, or a smartphone.
  • Parent/Caregiver form is also available in Spanish. Other languages are not officially provided, but the assessment is allowed to be translated. Multiple studies are available on reliability/validity of language and cultural adaptability.

Non-Specific Patient Population

back to Populations

Standard Error of Measurement (SEM)

Typically Developing Children: (Sparrow, Balla, & Cicchetti, 1984;  n = 3,000; age range = 0-18 years)

SEM for Adaptive Behavior Composite (ABC) of entire group:

  • VABS I Survey Form: 3.6
  • VABS I Expanded Form: 2.6

Minimally Clinically Important Difference (MCID)

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): (Chatham et al., 2018; n = 9067, 84% male; total observations = 10,326; mean age = 8.22, age range of 1-16-55.74 years; mean IQ = 83.56, range: 7-167)

  • MCID = 2–3.75 score units (p-value not reported for distribution based methods and anchor based methods)

Normative Data

Autism Spectrum Disorder: (Carter et al., 1998; n = 684, 72.66% male; mean age = 11.17 (7.83) years, age range of 2 to 59 years)

  • Mean Standard Scores for ASD sample under 10 years of age, Not mute: Communication = 59.74, Daily Living = 58.54, Socialization = 59.14.
  • Mean Standard Scores for ASD sample under 10 years of age, mute: Communication = 43.31, Daily Living = 33.25, Socialization = 35.08.
  • Mean Standard Scores for ASD sample 10 years of age and older, not mute: Communication = 47.26, Daily Living = 54.16, Socialization = 56.73.
  • Mean Standard Scores for ASD sample 10 years of age and older, mute: Communication = 32.82, Daily Living = 29.94, Socialization = 33.57
    • Supplemental Norm Group Percentile Ranks corresponding to Sum of Raw Scores (3 domains: communication, daily living, socialization) for Autism Special Population Sample

      Supplementary Norm Group Percentile Rank

      Under 10 years, Not Mute

      (n = 141)

      Under 10 years, Mute

      (n = 252)

      10 years or older, Not Mute

      (n = 171)

      10 years of older, Mute

      (n = 98)

      99 311-Up 303-Up 404-Up 348-Up
      98 293-310 294-302 396-403 345-347
      95 251-292 258-293 368-395 327-344
      90 228-250 227-257 347-367 304-326
      85 212-227 201-226 330-346 277-303
      80 199-211 177-200 314-329 249-276
      75 188-198 157-176 300-313 222-248
      70 178-187 139-156 286-299 196-212
      65 170-177 124-138 272-185 172-195
      60 162-169 111-123 259-271 152-171
      55 154-161 99-110 246-258 134-151
      50 146-153 89-98 234-245 120-133
      45 139-145 80-88 221-233 108-119
      40 132-138 73-79 209-220 99-107
      35 125-131 66-72 196-208 92-98
      30 118-124 61-65 183-195 86-91
      25 110-117 56-60 170-182 81-85
      20 102-109 52-55 156-169 78-80
      15 93-101 48-51 141-155 76-77
      10 82-92 45-47 124-140 74-75
      5 65-81 43-44 101-123 73
      2 59-64 42 95-100 72
      1 0-58 0-41 0-94 0-71

 

Typically Developing Children: (Sparrow et al., 1984)

  • Mean (SD) Adaptive Behavioral Composite Score for the VABS I Survey Form = 100.1 (9.0)
    • Mean Adaptive Behavioral Composite Score for the VABS I Survey Form per Age Group
      Age (years-months) Mean ABC Score SD
      0-0--0-11 105.4 9.0
      1-0--1-11 98.4 12.6
      2-0--2-11 101.9 15.2
      3-0--3-11 101.0 15.2
      4-0--4-11 98.0 15.0
      5-0--5-11 95.2 13.2
      6-0--6-11 100.8 16.9
      7-0--7-11 100.1 17.5
      8-0--8-11 102.1 15.7
      9-0--9-11 100.9 17.9
      10-0--10-11 101.0 15.6
      11-0--11-11 98.5 16.4
      12-0--13-11 99.7 15.8
      14-0--15-11 100.8 14.4
      16-0--18-11 98.0 15.8

       

 

Test/Retest Reliability

Typically Developing Children (Sparrow et al., 1984;  n = 484)

  • Excellent test-retest reliability for the VABS I Survey Form (ICC = 0.88)
    • Communication (ICC = .86)
    • Daily Living Skills (ICC = .85)
    • Socialization (ICC = .81)
    • Motor Skills (ICC = .81)

Interrater/Intrarater Reliability

Typically Developing Children (Sparrow et al., 1984)

  • Adequate interrater reliability for the VABS I Survey Form (ICC = 0.74)
    • Communication (ICC = .75)
    • Daily Living Skills (ICC = .62)
    • Socialization (ICC = .62)
    • Motor Skills (ICC = .78)

Internal Consistency

Typically Developing Children (Sparrow et al., 1984)

  • Excellent internal consistency for the VABS I Survey Form (split-half reliability coefficient =.94)
    • Communication (r = .89)
    • Daily Living Skills (r = .90)
    • Socialization (r = .86)
    • Motor Skills (r = .83)

Preschool-age:  (Goldberg, 2009; n=120; Mean Age= 4.9 (1.1); Vietnamese sample)

Using Adapted Vietnamese Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales compared to Original VABS.

  • Excellent Internal Consistency Reliability:
    • Expressive (?=.88)
    • Written (?=.89)
    • Personal (?=.90)
    • Domestic (?=.82)
    • Community (?=.87)
    • Interpersonal Relationships (?=.81)
    • Coping Skills (?=.87)
    • Fine (motor skills) (?=.83)
    • Communication domain (?=.93)
    • Daily Living Skills domain (?=.95)
    • Socialization domain (?=.93)
    • Motor skills domain (?=.89)
  • Adequate Internal Consistency Reliability
    • Play and leisure time (?=.76)
    • Gross (motor skills) (?=.78)
  • Poor Internal Consistency Reliability
    • Receptive (?=.27)

Criterion Validity (Predictive/Concurrent)

Concurrent validity:

Typically Developing Children (Sparrow et al., 1984)

  • Poor to adequate correlations of the VABS I Survey Form with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (r = .28)
    • Communication (r = .37)
    • Daily Living Skills (r = .12)
    • Socialization (r = .21)
    • Motor Skills (r = .17)
  • Adequate correlations of the VABS I Survey Form with the Vineland Social Maturity Scale (r = .55)

Responsiveness

Preschool-age: (Goldberg et al., 2009)

  • Large change between non-disabled and disabled groups scores (adaptive behavior cohen’s d=2.70).
    • Domain effect sizes ranged from 0.85 - 3.05.

Pediatric Disorders

back to Populations

Test/Retest Reliability

Pediatric Autism Spectrum Disorder: (Balboni et al.,  2016; n = 87, Mean Age = 4 years, 5 months (11 months); Autism severity ADOS social affect calibrated score 5.09 (1.04); Cognitive Level: Leiter-R standard score 70.13 (25.13); Linguistic level: Peabody-R raw score 15.03 (19.64); Italian sample)

  • Excellent test-retest reliability:
    • Communication (ICC = .94)
    • Daily Living Skills (ICC=.94)
    • Socialization (ICC=.91)

Internal Consistency

Children and Adolescents with Intellectual Disability: (de Bildt, Kraijer, Sytema & Minderaa, 2005; n = 826; Mean Age = 11.31 (3.65); Severity of Mild to Profound)

  • Excellent: Cronbach's alpha range from 0.97-0.99

Criterion Validity (Predictive/Concurrent)

Concurrent validity

Children and Teens with Autism Spectrum Disorder: (Perry & Factor, 1989; n =15 children and teens, Mean age=12.8 (2.7) years; VABS first version, Classroom Edition)

  • Excellent Concurrent Validity,  raw scores of the three VABS domains are highly correlated with the Adaptive Behavior Scale- School Edition Total Part I Raw Scores ( correlation coefficient= .77 to .85)

Predictive validity:

Pediatric Autism Spectrum Disorder: (Balboni et al., 2016)

  • Adequate classification capacity of the 4 item subset of the VABS (Playing, Following Instruction, Beginning to Talk, and Interactive Speech) to correctly classify 72% of children with ASD. (Wilks’ λ = 0.75; χ2 [4]= 13.94; p = .007, sensitivity was 74% and specificity was 57%)
  • Adequate classification capacity of the 4 item subset of the VABS (Playing, Following Instruction, Beginning to Talk, and Speech Skills) to correctly classify 75% of children with ASD. (Wilks’ λ = 0.75; χ2 [4]= 13.94; p = .007, sensitivity was 80% and specificity was 64%) These 4 items had medium and small size effect, statistically significant correlations with the ADOS Social Affect scale (correlation coefficients= -0.27- -0.37, p ≤ .05)
  • Significantly lower mean z-scores in the Communication domain for the ASD group compared to the NDD group. (ASD = -4.53 (3.37), NDD = -2.33 (2.69))
  • Medium size-effect in the domain of Communication (t(50) = 2.47, p = .017, Cohen’s d = 0.70,)
  • Large differences in subdomains the ASD group obtained significantly lower scores compared to other neurodevelopmental disorders in Receptive (t(50) = 3.18, p = .002, Cohen’s d = 0.91), Expressive (t(50) = 2.95, p = .005, Cohen’s d = 0.84), and Play and Leisure Time (t(25.635) = 2.47, p = .020, Cohen’s d = 0.81) subdomains.

Children with Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders (NDD): (Balboni et al. 2016; n = 20, Mean Age = 4 years, 6 months (10-11 months); Autism severity ADOS social affect calibrated score 2.53 (1.07); Cognitive Level: Leiter-R standard score 89.70 (24.59); Linguistic level: Peabody-R raw score 26.95 (21.87); Italian sample)

  • Adequate predictive validity of the 4 items of the VABS (Playing, Following Instruction, Beginning to Talk, and Interactive Speech) to correctly classify 60% of children with other NDD. (Wilks’ λ = 0.75; χ2 [4]= 13.94; p = .007)

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Specific Learning Disability (SLD): (Balboni et al., 2017; n = 170, Age range 5-14 years; Italian sample)

  • Adequate classification capacity of the 4 item subset of the VABS (Listening and attending, Expressing complex ideas, Social communication, and Following instructions) to correctly classify 87.5% of children with ADHD. (Wilks’ λ = 0.43; χ2 [4]= 37.37; p < 0.001, sensitivity and specificity were both 87.5%) (Balboni et al., 2017).
  • Adequate classification capacity of the 3 item subset of the VABS (Reading skills, Writing skills, and Times and dates) to correctly classify 67.7% of children with SLD. (Wilks’ λ = 0.84; χ2[4] = 20.90; p < 0.001, sensitivity was 70.2% and specificity was 67.7%) (Balboni et al., 2017).

 

Construct Validity

Convergent Validity:

Children and Adolescents with Intellectual Disability: (de Bildt et al., 2005)

  • Excellent: convergent validity of the VABS when compared to scores on the SRZ subscales (r = .93 in the total sample, .89 in the moderate/severe subgroup)

Children and Teens with Autism Spectrum Disorder: (Perry & Factor, 1989)

  • Excellent correlations with IQ and MA (correlation coefficient = 0.76 and .70 respectively)

 

Discriminant validity:

Children and Adolescents with Intellectual Disability: (de Bildt et al., 2005)

  • Poor: discriminant validity of the VABS when compared to IQ scores (r = .65 for Profound Severity)
  • Adequate to excellent: discriminant validity when compared to IQ scores (r = .36 for Mild Severity, r = .18 for Moderate Severity)
  • Excellent: discriminant validity when compared to Child Behavior Checklist and Developmental Behavior Checklist, both of which measure problem behavior (r = -.18 and -.30 respectively)
  • Adequate: discriminant validity when compared to The Scale of Pervasive Developmental Disorder in Mentally Retarded Persons, the Autism Behavior Checklist, the Autism Diagnostic Interview, and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, all of which measure PDD behavior (r =-.36, -.53, -.38, and -.49 respectively)

Intellectual Disability

back to Populations

Construct Validity

Discriminant validity:

Intellectual Disability and Associated Disorder: (Balboni, Pedrabissi, Molteni & Villa, 2001; n = 226; Mean Age = 17.76 (12.38); Severity of Mild to Profound mental retardation; Italian-speaking sample)

  • VABS Expanded Form domains showed “good” discriminant validity between each area of adaptive behavior (i.e., motor, communication, social). Researchers used multivariate analysis to compare scores of participants with ID and an associated motor, communication, or social behavior disorder to scores of a matched control participant with only ID. Experimental participants were found to have significantly lower scores compared to matched participants only in the scales of adaptive behavior related to their associated disorder (motor: p﹤.001, communication: p﹤.001, social behavior: p = .01). No other measure of discriminant validity was reported.

Bibliography

Balboni, G., Incognito, O., Belacchi, C., Bonichini, S., & Cubelli, R. (2017). Vineland-II adaptive behavior profile of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or specific learning disorders. Research in developmental disabilities, 61, 55-65.

Balboni, G., Pedrabissi, L., Molteni, M., & Villa, S. (2001). Discriminant validity of the Vineland Scales: Score profiles of individuals with mental retardation and a specific disorder. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 106(2), 162-172.

Balboni, G., Tasso, A., Muratori, F., & Cubelli, R. (2016). The Vineland-II in Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Item Content Category Analysis. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders,46(1), 42-52. doi:10.1007/s10803-015-2533-3

Carter, A.S., Volkmar, F.R., Sparrow, S.S., Wang, J., Lord, C., Dawson, G., Fombonne, E., Loveland, K., Mesibov, G., and Schopler, E. (1998). The Vineland Behavior Scales: Supplementary norms for individuals with autism. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 28(4), 287-302.

Chatham, C. H., Taylor, K. I., Charman, T., Liogier D'Ardhuy, X., Eule, E., Fedele, A., ... & San Jose Caceres, A. (2018). Adaptive behavior in autism: Minimal clinically important differences on the Vineland‐II. Autism Research, 11(2), 270-283.

de Bildt, A., Kraijer, D., Sytema, S., & Minderaa, R. (2005). The psychometric properties of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales in children and adolescents with mental retardation. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 35(1), 53-62.

Pearson. (2019). Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales | Third Edition. Retrieved April 23, 2019, from
Resources: Vineland Publication Summary (2016), Vineland-3 Brochure (2018)

Goldberg, M. R., Dill, C. A., Shin, J. Y., & Nhan, N. V. (2009). Reliability and validity of the Vietnamese Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales with preschool-age children. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 30(3), 592-602.

Perry, A., & Factor, D. C. (1989). Psychometric validity and clinical usefulness of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales and the AAMD Adaptive Behavior Scale for an autistic sample. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 19(1), 41-55.

Royal College of Psychiatrists. (2001). DC-LD: Diagnostic criteria for psychiatric disorders for use with adults with learning disabilities/mental retardation (Occasional paper OP48). London: Gaskell.

Sparrow, S. S., Balla, D. A., & Cicchetti, D. V. (1984). Vineland adaptive behavior scales: Interview edition: Expanded form manual. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.

World Health Organization. (1994). Pocket guide to the ICD-10 classification of mental and behavioral disorders. London: Churchill Livingstone.