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. 2015 Nov;41(6):1161-71.
doi: 10.1111/cch.12287. Epub 2015 Sep 9.

The development and reliability of an observational tool for assessing mother-child interactions in field studies- experience from Pakistan

M A Rasheed  1 , A K Yousafzai  1
Affiliations

The development and reliability of an observational tool for assessing mother-child interactions in field studies- experience from Pakistan

M A Rasheed et al. Child Care Health Dev. 2015 Nov.

Abstract

Background: This study describes the development and reliability testing of an observational tool to measure mother-child interactions with toddlers aged 2 years in a rural low-income country setting.

Methods: The development protocol comprised five phases with iterative revisions: (1) identification of the theoretical framework for responsive behaviours and selection of items; (2) field testing; (3) expert review; (4) training of the data collection team; and (5) piloting. The final tool was a structured live observational measure assessing a 5-min interaction of a shared picture-book-reading activity. Maternal behaviours assessed included affect, touch, verbal statements and language stimulation; child behaviours assessed included affect, communication and attention.

Results: Following development, the mother-child interaction tool was administered on a cohort of 1390 children at 2 years of age. Using a video strategy, inter-observer reliability assessed by the Bland-Altman test for mother-child dyads suggested moderate agreement between expert and field assessors on total scores (r = 0.681**, P < 0.001, n = 154). Significant associations of the total interaction score correlations using Pearson's' correlations were found with the Responsiveness (r = 0.271**, P < 0.001, n = 1345) and Involvement (r = 0.325**, P < 0.001, n = 1345) subscales of the Home Observation for Measurement of Environment-Infant Toddler Inventory, maternal knowledge (r = 0.203**, P < 0.001, n = 1345), maternal depression (r = .-063**, P < 0.001, n = 1345), child cognitive development (r = 0.392**, P < 0.001, n = 1345) and language development (r = 0.620**, P < 0.001, n = 1345) assessed using the Bayley Scales for Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition.

Conclusion: The authors conclude that this tool can be reliably used by trained assessors to measure mother-child interactions in field studies.

Keywords: caregiving; development; mother-child interaction; reliability; validity.

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