title: Assessing parent--child interaction in the preschool years: A pilot study on the psychometric properties of the toddler CARE-Index.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to test the utility of the Toddler CARE-Index, an assessment tool for parent-child interaction among preschool-aged children, for screening of parental sensitivity. The CARE-Index was initially developed for infants and had been adapted for toddlers up to 3 years of age. This study tests its utility for children up to 5.8 years old. Sixty-four children (2.3 to 5.8 years) and their mothers took part in the study and were examined with both the Toddler CARE-Index and the Preschool Assessment of Attachment. The sample comprised two groups, a sample that had come to professional attention (n = 21) and a normative sample (n = 43). Analysis of coder agreement showed adequate correspondence among three coders. Test-retest reliability was less robust. Testing validity, there was a significant relation between sensitivity of the mother and attachment security of the child in the total sample as well as in both subsamples. These results are a first step for using the Toddler CARE-Index as an economical and promising instrument for the assessment of parental sensitivity with children beyond toddlerhood in both normative and clinical settings.
authors.affiliation: Ulm University Hospital for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ulm, Germany. anne-katrin.kuenster@uniklinik-ulm.de
authors.forename: Anne Katrin
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Künster
authors.forename: Jörg Michael
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Fegert
authors.forename: Ute
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ziegenhain
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D004493:Education; D005196:Family Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009769:Object Attachment; D015588:Observer Variation; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019962:Reactive Attachment Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results