ABSTRACT
Clinical Validation of the Caregiver-Child Socioemotional and Relationship Rating Scale (SIRS) for Child Behavior in a Preschool-Age Sample The description of child behavior in mother-child-interaction is important in early detection and treatment of psychiatric disorders in preschool children. The Caregiver-Child Socioemotional and Relationship Rating Scale (SIRS) may serve this diagnostic purpose. We aim to examine interrater-reliability of SIRS and concurrent, convergent, and discriminant validity to maternal behavior by Play-PAB, and a measure of mother-child-relationsship by Parent-Infant-Global-Assessment-Scale (PIRGAS). Five raters assessed 47 ten-minute video sequences of parent-child-interaction recorded at the Family Day Hospital for Preschool Children with SIRS, Play-PAB, and PIRGAS. We report psychometric properties of SIRS, and present the association with Play-PAB and PIRGAS. SIRS shows a satisfying interrater-reliability for all items. Positive child behavior e. g. the SIRS' "child responsiveness" shows negative correlation to Play-PAB-scales' parental "hostility" and "intrusiveness", but independence of parental "involvement", "positive emotionality", and "discipline". Child and parental behavior show expected associations with the global relationship measure PIRGAS. The assessment of child behavior in parent-child-interaction with SIRS can be quickly learned and reliably applied without extensive training. SIRS shows meaningful relations to parental behavior and a clinical global measure of the caregiver-child-relationship. We recommend SIRS for clinical diagnostics to describe child behavior in mother-child-interaction.
Subject(s)
Affective Symptoms/diagnosis , Affective Symptoms/psychology , Child Behavior Disorders/diagnosis , Child Behavior Disorders/psychology , Interpersonal Relations , Mother-Child Relations , Personality Assessment/statistics & numerical data , Psychometrics/statistics & numerical data , Social Adjustment , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Male , Observer Variation , Play and Playthings , Reproducibility of ResultsABSTRACT
With community samples, parent behavior can be assessed in standardized mother-child interaction situations with the observational instrument Lab-PAB by Wilson und Durbin (2012) with respect to five dimensions (Involvement, Positive Emotionality, Hostility, Intrusiveness and Discipline). We examined an adaptation of Lab-PAB for non-standardized free-play interaction situations (Play-PAB version) with a preschool psychiatric sample. We examined the internal consistency, interrater reliability and dimensional structure of the Play-PAB and its associations to the clinical relationship assessment scale PIR-GAS from DC:0-3R. Interaction sequences of 47 parent-child dyads who were treated in our Family Day Clinic were evaluated at admission with the Play-PAB, in addition to the PIR-GAS-rating. Each instrument was rated by two independent raters. We report means, standard deviations, internal consistencies and the interrater-reliability for each of the five Play-PAB scales. Furthermore we examine if the scale intercorrelations are reasonable in comparison to the original version. Finally, the associations to PIR-GAS are presented. The Play-PAB scales reflect sufficient variation of parenting, good internal consistencies and satisfactory interrater reliability. The adaptation shows psychometric properties that are comparable to the original version. The scale intercorrelations as well as the associations to PIR-GAS are reasonable. The Play-PAB is a promising instrument for assessing different aspects of parent behavior in a preschool psychiatric sample, with meaningful associations to parent-child-relationship quality.
