The Impacts of Non-Parental Care on Child Development - August 1999

Measurement Instruments

The following is a list of instruments, discussed in the bibliography, which have been used to study the impacts of NPC on children's development. It includes measures of family background characteristics, child outcomes, and various aspects of the NPC environment. Full descriptions were not available in the articles for many of the instruments, however, for each instrument we have listed an additional reference that should provide further information.

A.1 Family Measures

Life Events Questionnaire

Coddington, R.D. (1972). The significance of life events as etiologic factors in the distress of children II: A study of a normal population. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. Vol. 16. p. 205-213.

Parenting Stress Index (PSI-short form)

Abidin, R.R. (1990). Parenting Stress Index Short Form: Test Manual. Charlottesville, VA: Pediatric Psychology Press.

Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale (FACES-II, abbreviated form)

Olson, D.H., Russell, C.S. & Sprenkle, D.H. (1989). Circumplex model: Systemic assessment and treatment of families. New York: Haworth Press.

Parental Responsibility Questionnaire (PRQ)

Lamb, et al., (1988). The determinants of parental involvement in primiparous Swedish families. International Journal of Behavioural Development. Vol. 11. p. 433-449.

Availability of Social Support

Marshall, N.L. & Barnett, R.C. (1993). Work-family strains and gains among two-earner couples. Journal of Community Psychology. Vol. 21. p. 64-78. Or Marshall, N.L., and Barnett, R.C. (1993). Variations in job strain across health care and social service settings. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology. Vol. 3. p. 261-271.

A.2 Child Temperament

Block's California Child Q-Set

Block, J.H. & Block, J. (1980). The role of ego-control and ego-resiliency in the organisation of behavior. In W.A. Collins (Ed.), Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology. Vol. 13. p. 39-101. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Baumrind's Preschool Behavior Q-Sort

Baumrind, D. (1968). Manual for the preschool behavior Q-sort. Berkeley. University of California, Institute of Human Development.

Infant Characteristics Questionnaire

Bates, J.E. & Bayles, K. (1984). Objective and subjective components in mothers' perceptions of their children from age 6 to 3 years. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly. Vol. 30. p. 111-130.

A.3 Child Care Quality Indicators

There are a number of indices of the quality of the caregiving environment.

a. Centre-based care:

The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS - for children over 30 months) and the Infant-Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS - for children 30 months and under)

These scales were designed (see Harms and Clifford 1980, 1986) specifically for the purpose of measuring process quality in centre-based care in the United States and require on-site observation of the care arrangement by trained observers. One scale is for children over 30 months while the other is for children under 30 months. Each index consists of about 30 items on which each classroom is scored on a Likert-type scale of 1 to 7 by an observer over a minimum of a two-hour period. The items include the physical setup of the room; furnishings and materials; personal care routines such as greeting, meals, snacks, diapering, health practices, and departure; learning activities such as use of language, art, music, movement, blocks, sand, pretend play; adult-child and child-child interactions, including discipline; and program structure. A complete list of items and some examples of instructions to the observers on how to score them are attached. These items can be broken down into seven different dimensions:

• personal care routines
• furnishings and display
• language and reasoning experiences
• fine and gross motor activities
• creative activities
• social development
• adult needs

The global score, ranging from 37 to 259, provides ratings from "inadequate" to "excellent" (inadequate: 37-92; minimal: 93 to148; good: 149 to 203; and excellent: 204 to 259). The overall ECERS and ITERS scores can also be broken into two subordinate scales known as the Developmentally Appropriate Activity Index and the Appropriate Caregiving Index. The former incorporates items related to materials, schedule, and activities; the latter incorporates items related to adult-child interactions, supervision and discipline.

The Caregiver Interaction Scale

This instrument is used in centre-based care to rate individual teachers. It consists of 26 items characterizing the nature of the teacher's interaction with children in the classroom. Each teacher is rated by an observer on a scale of 1 to 4 on each item, where 1 represents the lowest score and 4 the highest. The 26 items are aggregated into three scales, measuring sensitivity (SENSITIVE), harshness (HARSH), and detachment (DETACHED). Note that the latter two are "bad" outcomes, with higher scores representing lower quality of care. See Arnett, J. (1989). Caregivers in child care centers: Does training matter? Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. Vol.10. p. 541-552.

The Adult Involvement Scale

This instrument uses time-sampled observations to measure the intensity of teacher-child involvement in centre-based care. See Howes, C. and Stewart P. (1987). Child's play with adults, toy, and peers: An examination of family and child-care influences. Developmental Psychology. Vol. 23. p. 423-430.

Arnett Scale of Provider Sensitivity

This scale was designed for use within child care settings and distinguishes among providers with different levels of training and different attachment relationships with children. It consists of 26 items, each rated on a 4-point scale. See Arnett, J. (1989). Caregivers in child care centers: Does training matter? Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. Vol.10. p.541-552.

The EDCOS

This is one of the assessment tools developed to provide guidelines for daycare centre accreditation. It includes 87 items rated from 1 to 3, grouped in 13 different dimensions:

• staff-child interactions
• curriculum
• staff-parent interactions
• staff training
• management
• staffing
• physical environment
• health and safety
• nutrition
• evaluation
• Low quality centre - poor or inadequate care - a score of 148 or below
• High quality - excellence - 204 or above
• Medium quality - scores between 148-204

Family-daycare:

The Family Daycare Rating Scale (FDCRS)

This indictor was developed to provide a 6-factor assessment of the quality of home-based care. The six factors or areas of caregiving practices include space and furnishings, basic needs, language and reasoning, learning activities, social development and adult needs. The scale has a total of 33 items. Each item is rated on a 1-to-7 scale, with a score of 1 indicating inadequate practices and a score of 7 indicating excellent practices (3 = adequate; 5 = good).

A.4 Global Indicators

The Belsky and Walker Spot Observation Checklist

This instrument includes 3 positive and 7 negative events, with an observer noting whether each occurred during three minute long spot-sample units. It was used in the Goteborg study, both as a supplemental measure of the quality of care in the child's home and to measure process quality in out-of-home types of care (see Broberg, Wessels, Lamb, and Hwang, 1997; Lamb, Hwang, Broberg, and Bookstein, 1988). See Belsky, J. and Walker, A. (1980). Infant-Toddler center spot observation system. University Park: Pennsylvania State University, Department of Individual and Family Studies.

The Observational Record of the Caregiving Enviromment (ORCE)

This scale is used to assess the quality of care in the child's home, in a child care home and in a child care centre. The ORCE is composed of behavioral scales, which are frequency counts of specific caregiving acts with the child, and qualitative ratings, which are ratings of the quality of the caregiver's behavior with the child. The ORCE is constructed using four 44-minute cycles of observations by trained observers. Observations usually take place over two days within a two-week period.

The behavior scales enumerate the frequency of the following kinds of behaviors:

• shared positive affect
• positive physical contact
• responds to vocalization/child's talk
• speaks positively to child
• asks questions of child
• other talk to child
• stimulates cognitive development/ teaches academic skill
• facilitates behaviour
• mutual exchange
• negative/restricting actions
• speaks negatively to child
• child watching/ unoccupied/ transition

A qualitative rating is completed at the end of each 44-minute cycle and includes the following:

• sensitivity/responsiveness to non-distressed communication
• stimulation
• positive regard
• detachment/disengagement
• flat affect
• intrusiveness (at 36 months)
• fosters exploration (at 36 months)

The ORCE is currently being used by the NICHD study. Thirty-six months into this study, the researchers have found that the scales of the ORCE are substantially similar at all assessment ages, with minor modifications to accommodate the increasing developmental complexity of caregiver-child interactions. See Arnett, J. (1987). Training for caregivers in daycare centers. Paper presented at the biennial meetings for the Society for the Research in Child Development, Baltimore, MD.

The NICHD version of ORCE

At each age of measurement, two composite measures of child care quality were created, one based on frequencies of behaviors, the other on qualitative ratings of behavior. The Positive Caregiving Frequency composite represented the summed, standardized frequencies of nine categories of positive caregiving behavior. At 6 months the categories included were: shared positive affect, positive physical contact, responds to infant's vocalization, asks question of infant, other talk to infant, stimulates infant's development, facilitates infant's behavior, and reads to infant (Cronbach's alpha = .89). At 15, 24, and 36 months, five additional categories were included in the composite: positive talk to child, restricts child's activity, negative talk to child, negative physical contact with child, and child unoccupied, with negatively oriented behaviors (e.g., restricts) scored in reverse (alpha = .78). The second composite variable at each age, Positive Caregiving Ratings, was generated at 6, 15, and 24 months by summing five qualitative ratings made at the end of each observation cycle: Sensitivity/responsiveness to child's non-distress expressions; positive regard; stimulation of cognitive development; detachment (reversed); and flat affect (reversed). At 36 months, two additional categories, fostering exploration and intrusiveness (reversed) were added to the composite. Cronbach's alphas were .89, .88, .86, and .82 at 6, 15, 24, and 36 months, respectively.

A.5 Home Quality Measurements

Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME)

This instrument has different versions according to the age of the child. The items on this scale measure the degree to which the child's home environment provided emotional support and cognitive stimulation. It was also used in the Goteborg study to measure the quality of care provided in the parental home. The short version of HOME includes 26 yes/no items (14 for cognitive stimulation and 12 for emotional support) that are rated by either mother's responses to questions or direct observations of the homes. Home observation for measurement of the environment: A revision of the preschool scale. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 84, 235-244. Caldwell, B.M. (1970). Instruction manual. HOME inventory for infants. Little Rock: Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Arkansas. Caldwell, B.M. and Bradley, R.H. (1984). Home observation for the measurement of the environment (Rev. ed.). Little Rock: University of Arkansas, College of Education.

A.6 Child Outcome Measures

a. Academic readiness/cognitive skills

The 1970 version of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT)

The PIAT consists of five subtests - mathematics, reading recognition, reading comprehension, spelling, and general information. See Dunn L. and Dunn L. (1981).

The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R)

Dunn, L. & Dunn, L. (1981). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) manual. Circle Pines, Minnesota: American Guidance Services

Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement-Revised (WJ-R) (To assess pre-academic skills)

Woodcock and Johnson (1990). Woodcock, R.W. & Johnson, M.B. (1989). Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised. Allen, TX: DLM Teaching Resources.

The WRAT-R (English reading test)

Jastak, S. & Wikinson, G.S. (1984). Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised. Wilmington, Delaware: Jastak Associates, Inc.

KeyMath

The measure has five subscales: numeration, addition, subtraction, time and money, problem solving. Connolly, A.J. (1991). Canadian Edition of Key Math-Revised: A Diagnostic Inventory of Essential Mathematics. Toronto: Psycan Corporation.

French receptive language measure

Dudley, J. & Delage, J. (1980). Tests de Langage Dudley/Delage. St. Lambert, Quebec: Les Éditions de I'ABC.

The WPPSI BLOCK Design (for problem solving)

Wechsler, D. (1963, 1967). Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale for Intelligence. Cleveland, Ohio: The Psychological Corporation.

The Digit Span Subscale of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WISC-R).

Used for measuring child's short-term memory and attentiveness. See Wechsler, D. (1974). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). New York: The Psychological Corporation.

b. Social/behavioral development

The Classroom Behavior Inventory (CBI)

Schaefer, E.S. & Edgerton, M. (1976). Classroom Behavior Inventory. Unpublished rating scale.

Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS)

Pianta, R.C. & Steinberg, M. (1992). Teacher-child relationships and the process of adjusting to school. New Directions for Child Development. Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Behavioral problems were measured using the Teacher Report Form (TRF)

Achenbach, T.M. & Edelbrock, C.S. (1986). Manual for the Teacher's Report Form of the Child Behavior Profile.

The Teacher Checklist of Peer Relations [This checklist contains a set of items that assess teacher judgements on 5-point scales (ranging from very poor to very good) of children's social skillfulness with peers, and includes items such as "understands others' feelings."]

Coie, J.D. & Dodge, K.A. (1988). Multiple sources of data on social behavior and social status in the school: A cross-age comparison. Child Development. Vol. 59. p. 815-829.

The Social Problem Solving Scale

Dodge, K. (1993). Social Problem Solving Scale. Unpublished Manuscript. FAST-Track Project. Nashville, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University.

The Preschooler Behavior Checklist (PBC) (Twenty-two items are scored by the teacher as present, absent, or unsure, yielding a total score.)

McGuire, J. & Richman, N. (1986). Screening for behaviour problems in nurseries: The reliability and validity of the preschool behaviour checklist. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Vol. 27. p. 7-32.

The Social Competence Scale (SCS) (The SCS assesses the social behavior of 3- to 6-year-old children in a group setting. It contains 73 items describing the child's interaction with caregivers as well as other children. Each item is rated in a 5-point Likert-type scale according to the frequency of the behavior. The scale yields scores in two separate factors: factor I (SCS-I) interest-participation vs. apathy-withdrawal, and factor II (SCS-II) anger-defiance vs. cooperation-compliance. Assessments are often assessments completed by the child's teacher.)

Kohn, M. & Rosman, B.L. (1973). A two-factor model of emotional disturbance in the young child: Validity and screening efficiency. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Vol. 14. p. 31-56.

Peer Aggression Scales

Coie, J.D., Dodge, K.A. and Coppotelli, H. (1982). Dimensions and types of social status: A cross-age perspective. Developmental Psychology. Vol. 18. p. 557-570.

The Child Behavior Checklist (for providers)

Achenbach, T.N., Edelbrock, C. and Howell, C.T. (1987). Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15, 629-650.

Achenbach, T.M. (1991). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist and the Revised Child Behavior Checklist (2^nd edition). Burlington: University of Vermont.

Preschool Behaviour Questionnaire

Tremblay, R., et al. (1987). "The Preschool Behaviour Questionnaire: Stability of its factor structures between culture, sexes, ages and socioeconomic classes." International Journal of Behavioral Development. Vol. 10. p. 467-484.

The Attitudes/Perceptions of Competence Measure

Stipek, D. (1993). Attitudes/Perceptions of Competence. Unpublished rating scale.

Marsh Self Description Questionnaire

Marsh, H.W. (1988). Self-Description Questionnaire-I. New York: The Psychological Corporation.