McCoy Dana Charles, Sudfeld Christopher R, Bellinger David C, Muhihi Alfa, Ashery Geofrey, Weary Taylor E, Fawzi Wafaie, Fink Günther
Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Popul Health Metr. 2017 Feb 9;15(1):3. doi: 10.1186/s12963-017-0122-8.
Low-cost, cross-culturally comparable measures of the motor, cognitive, and socioemotional skills of children under 3 years remain scarce. In the present paper, we aim to develop a new caregiver-reported early childhood development (ECD) scale designed to be implemented as part of household surveys in low-resourced settings.
We evaluate the acceptability, test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and discriminant validity of the new ECD items, subscales, and full scale in a sample of 2481 18- to 36-month-old children from peri-urban and rural Tanzania. We also compare total and subscale scores with performance on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID-III) in a subsample of 1036 children. Qualitative interviews from 10 mothers and 10 field workers are used to inform quantitative data.
Adequate levels of acceptability and internal consistency were found for the new scale and its motor, cognitive, and socioemotional subscales. Correlations between the new scale and the BSID-III were high (r > .50) for the motor and cognitive subscales, but low (r < .20) for the socioemotional subscale. The new scale discriminated between children's skills based on age, stunting status, caregiver-reported disability, and adult stimulation. Test-retest reliability scores were variable among a subset of items tested.
Results of this study provide empirical support from a low-income country setting for the acceptability, reliability, and validity of a new caregiver-reported ECD scale. Additional research is needed to test these and other caregiver reported items in children in the full 0 to 3 year range across multiple cultural and linguistic settings.
针对3岁以下儿童的运动、认知和社会情感技能，低成本且具有跨文化可比性的测量方法仍然匮乏。在本文中，我们旨在开发一种新的由照料者报告的幼儿发展（ECD）量表，该量表旨在作为资源匮乏地区家庭调查的一部分来实施。
我们在来自坦桑尼亚城乡结合部和农村的2481名18至36个月大儿童的样本中，评估新ECD项目、分量表和全量表的可接受性、重测信度、内部一致性和区分效度。我们还在1036名儿童的子样本中，将总分和分量表得分与贝利婴幼儿发展量表（BSID-III）的表现进行比较。来自10名母亲和10名实地工作者的定性访谈用于为定量数据提供信息。
新量表及其运动、认知和社会情感分量表具有足够的可接受性和内部一致性。新量表与BSID-III在运动和认知分量表上的相关性较高（r>.50），但在社会情感分量表上较低（r<.20）。新量表能够根据年龄、发育迟缓状况、照料者报告的残疾情况和成人刺激来区分儿童的技能。在测试的部分项目中，重测信度得分存在差异。
本研究结果为低收入国家环境下一种新的由照料者报告的ECD量表的可接受性、信度和效度提供了实证支持。需要进一步的研究，以在多种文化和语言环境中，对0至3岁儿童的这些及其他由照料者报告的项目进行测试。
