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Background: The Group Climate Inventory (GCI) was tested for measurement invariance across 332 adults with and 225 adults without mild intellectual disabilities in Dutch forensic treatment, and for latent mean differences on its "Support", "Growth", "Repression", and "Atmosphere" subscales. Method: Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the configural, threshold, and loading and threshold invariance of the GCI across both groups, and to compare group latent means on each subscale. Results: Measurement invariance was found across groups. Latent mean group comparisons showed small but significant differences reflected in lower scores on Support and Atmosphere in the group with mild intellectual disabilities. Conclusion: The GCI allows meaningful comparisons between clients with and without mild intellectual disabilities in secure facilities. Results from the between-group comparisons suggest that consideration should be given as to whether, and why, the support and atmosphere perceptions of clients with mild intellectual disabilities might be less good.

Background: In secure residential facilities, group climate perceptions of clients with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning are systematically assessed for quality improvement. A valid and reliable measure may ensure that this process is consistent. The Group Climate Inventory--Revised (GCI-R) is a new measure to assess group climate perceptions. Method: Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in 148 adult clients (79% male) with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning in a secure facility to examine internal structure validity and internal consistency reliability of the GCI-R. Results: The results indicate support for the five-factor structure of the GCI-R ('Support', 'Growth', 'Repression', 'Peer interactions', and 'Physical environment'). The internal consistency reliability of its scales ranged from acceptable to good ([alpha]: 0.72-0.87; [omega]: 0.76-0.86). Conclusion: The GCI-R demonstrates evidence of psychometric adequacy when applied to adult clients with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning in secure residential facilities.

Introduction: This study examined self-reported levels of depression, anxiety, and stress and the correlation with social stigma in a sample of sexual minority people in Kosovo. Methods: One hundred and three Kosovo sexual minority people (aged 18 to 50) completed questionnaires about social stigma (HHRDS), depression, stress, and anxiety (DASS-21). Descriptive statistics were calculated, a multivariate ANOVA examined differences between sexual minority people, and the bivariate association between HHRDS and DASS-21 scores was examined. Results: Most participants reported moderate to high levels of depression, anxiety, and stress with positive associations with social stigma. Conclusion: Sexual minority people in Kosovo are experiencing a mental health crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment and monitoring of safety in special education schools is imperative to establish and maintain a safe environment in which students can develop academic and social–emotional skills. The present study describes the development of a student self‐report measure, the Safe at School questionnaire. Factorial validity, reliability and concurrent validity was examined in a construction sample of 280 students (68.6% male, age M = 13.29, SD = 2.52) and a validation sample of 1572 students (77.4% male; age M = 14.33, SD = 2.04), representing 233 classes from 20 schools for special education in the Netherlands. Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the factor structure of the Safe at School questionnaire. A model with three correlating factors at the within‐ and between‐group level (Rules and Social Norms, Perceived Own Safety and Perceived Safety of Other Students) showed a satisfactory fit to the data. Reliabilities of the scales were good. Also, measurement invariance for gender was demonstrated, indicating no differences in latent means between boys and girls. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined associations between group climate as perceived by 212 individuals with mild intellectual disability and work climate as experienced by 262 sociotherapists in a forensic setting. Results showed that if sociotherapists experienced more job satisfaction, they experienced less negative team functioning. Also, more positive team functioning was related to less repression. Workload and negative team functioning were related to less possibilities for growth by clients. No significant associations were found between other work climate and group climate dimensions. This study emphasized the importance of being aware of parallel processes between work climate and group climate in secure settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]