Assessing the Right to Interpersonal Relationships, Home and Family for People With Intellectual Disabilities

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Disability Studies
• Human Rights Law

Background:

• The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) recognizes the right to interpersonal relationships in Article 23.
• Monitoring the exercise of this right is hindered by a lack of appropriate evaluation tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To psychometrically validate items assessing Article 23 of the CRPD.
• To develop and validate the interpersonal relationships subscale of the #Rights4MeToo Scale.

Main Methods:

• Psychometric validation of a 7-item unidimensional scale.
• Data collected from 1215 participants including people with intellectual disabilities, family members, and professionals.
• Analysis included internal consistency and invariance testing across gender and respondent types.

Main Results:

• The final scale demonstrated a unidimensional 7-item structure.
• High internal consistency and reliability were found.
• The scale showed full invariance across gender and partial invariance across respondent types.

Conclusions:

• The interpersonal relationships subscale is a valid and reliable tool for assessing Article 23 of the CRPD.
• This tool has significant implications for support planning and public policy.
• It can enhance the quality of life for people with intellectual disabilities by promoting their sexual and sentimental relationship rights.