title: The development of a measure of maternal cognitive sensitivity appropriate for use in primary care health settings.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Parental responsivity is important to children's cognitive and socioemotional development, yet is under-represented in primary healthcare, because the measurement is specialized and time-consuming.
  
  
  METHODS
  The current study developed a measure of maternal cognitive sensitivity (CS), which uses impressionistic ratings based on brief observations of parent-child interaction when children are 3 years old.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Using data from a longitudinal cohort (Time 1, N = 501), the CS measure had good psychometric properties, was significantly related to a gold-standard maternal responsivity measure, and was predicted by the same socio-demographic factors predictive of other measures of parental responsivity. Finally, a well-established pathway from socioeconomic risk (child age 2 months) to compromised parenting (child age 3 years) to negative child outcome (child age 4.5 years) was demonstrated with CS as the mediator.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The maternal CS measure is brief, can be easily trained, and takes 8 min to administer and code, making it potentially useful in primary healthcare settings.
authors.affiliation: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Applied Psychology and Human Development, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Prime
authors.forename: Dillon
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Browne
authors.forename: Emis
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Akbari
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wade
authors.forename: Sheri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Madigan
authors.forename: Jennifer M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Jenkins
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*
keywords: Maternal responsivity; child cognitive development; parent-child interaction; primary healthcare; thin slice methodology