Interaction Rating Scale (IRS) as an evidence-based practical index of children's social skills and parenting.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this paper is to describe the features of the Interaction Rating Scale (IRS) as an evidence-based practical index of children's social skills and parenting.


METHODS
The participants in our study, which was conducted as part of a Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) project, were 370 dyads of children (aged 18, 30, and 42 month) and 81 dyads of 7-year-old children with their caregivers. The participants completed the five minute interaction session and were observed using the IRS.


RESULTS
The results indicated that the IRS can measure children's social skill development and parenting with high validity. Along with the discriminate validity for pervasive development disorder (PDD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), abuse and maltreatment, a high correlation with the SDQ (Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire), and high reliability, the IRS is effective in describing features of social skill development.


CONCLUSIONS
The IRS provides further evidence of the fact that in order to study children's social skill development, it is important to evaluate various features of the caregiver-child interaction as a predictor of social skills.
Anme
Tokie
T
Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Tokyo, Japan. anmet@md.tsukuba.ac.jp
Shinohara
Ryoji
R
Sugisawa
Yuka
Y
Tong
Lian
L
Tanaka
Emiko
E
Watanabe
Taeko
T
Onda
Yoko
Y
Kawashima
Yuri
Y
Hirano
Maki
M
Tomisaki
Etsuko
E
Mochizuki
Yukiko
Y
Morita
Kentaro
K
Gan-Yadam
Amarsanaa
A
Yato
Yuko
Y
Yamakawa
Noriko
N
D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D019370:Observation; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012919:Social Behavior