Turkish Adaptation of the Behavioral Inflexibility Scale for Mentally Disabled Chıldren: Validity and Reliability Study

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Background: This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Behavioral Inflexibility Scale, originally developed by Lecavalier et al., for use with children with intellectual disabilities.Objectives: This study was methodologically planned and conducted to adapt the Behavioral Inflexibility Scale for children with intellectual disabilities to the Turkish population.Methods: The sample consisted of 385 parents of children with intellectual disabilities aged 3–18 years, receiving education between August 1 and October 1, 2022. Ethical approval and informed consent were obtained. Analyses included Content Validity Ratio, KMO test, Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity, Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses, Cronbach’s alpha, ICC, and paired samples t-test.Results: The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy being at an acceptable level and the Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity yielding significant results (χ² = 9474.41; p < 0.001) indicate that the data were suitable for factor analysis. The results of the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) revealed a single-factor structure with factor loadings ranging from 0.584 to 0.772. In this study, the findings of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) (χ²/df = 4.622; RMSEA = 0.077; NFI = 0.836; RFI = 0.816; IFI = 0.867; TLI = 0.850; CFI = 0.866) demonstrated that the model showed an acceptable level of fit. Within the scope of reliability analyses, the Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency coefficient was calculated as 0.97, indicating that the scale was highly reliable. Additionally, item–total correlation coefficients ranging from 0.563 to 0.773 support the strong internal consistency of the scale.Conclusion: The Turkish version of the Behavioral Inflexibility Scale is valid and reliable for use in clinical and research settings with children with intellectual disabilities aged 3–18.