Assessing resources and stress in parents of severely dysfunctional children through the Clarke modification of Holroyd's Questionnaire on Resources and Stress

Abstract

The Holroyd (1974) Questionnaire on Resources and Stress (QRS) although clinically useful may be too inclusive and not exclusively relevant to severely dysfunctional individuals. Hitherto, efforts at shortening and psychometrically validating the QRS have met with some success: the shorter forms however still target both mentally and physically handicapped children and are clinically not as useful as the original instrument. The 78-item Clarke modification of the QRS, mainly a subset of the original, was an attempt to remedy these problems. It was validated with mothers and fathers of autistic, mentally retarded, learning-disabled, and asymptomatic children. Good internal consistency, split-half reliability, and coefficient of stability were obtained. Construct and concurrent validities were also acceptable. The questionnaire discriminated best between the two more severely affected groups and the controls. Group differences were found for 8 of its 9 scales and sex of parent differences were found for 3. The Clarke modification of the QRS is recommended for clinical use with parents of children with autism and mental retardation.