Sincovich Alanna, Gregory Tess, Zanon Cristian, Santos Daniel D, Lynch John, Brinkman Sally A
School of Public Health, University of Adelaide, Level 9, Adelaide Health and Medical Science Building, 57 North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia, 5005, Australia.
Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia, Level 15, 31 Flinders St., Adelaide, South Australia, 5000, Australia.
SSM Popul Health. 2020 Jun 7;11:100613. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100613. eCollection 2020 Aug.
Inclusion of early child development in the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda raises issues of how this goal should be monitored, particularly in low resource settings. The aim of this paper was to explore the validity of the early Human Capability Index (eHCI); a population measure designed to capture the holistic development of children aged 3-5 years. Convergent, divergent, discriminant and concurrent validity were examined by exploring the associations between eHCI domains and child (sex, age, stunting status, preschool attendance) and family (maternal education, home learning environment) characteristics. Analyses were repeated using data from seven low and middle income countries: Brazil (n = 1810), China (n = 11421), Kiribati (n = 8339), Lao PDR (n = 7493), Samoa (n = 12191), Tonga (n = 6214), and Tuvalu (n = 549). Correlations and linear regressions provide evidence that within these country samples, the tool is capturing the aspects of early child development that it was designed to measure. Although the tool was intended to measure development of children aged 3-5 years, results suggest it can be validly applied to children aged 2-6 years. The eHCI is free, requires minimal implementation resources, captures development across domains and abilities, and is designed to allow cultural and contextual concepts to be included. The eHCI appears psychometrically robust in diverse country contexts and could enable evaluation of early years policies and programs, as well as monitoring of children's development to track progress towards the Sustainable Development Agenda.
将幼儿发展纳入联合国可持续发展议程引发了如何监测这一目标的问题，特别是在资源匮乏的环境中。本文的目的是探讨早期人类能力指数（eHCI）的有效性；这是一种旨在衡量3至5岁儿童整体发展的人口指标。通过探索eHCI各领域与儿童（性别、年龄、发育迟缓状况、学前教育入学情况）及家庭（母亲教育程度、家庭学习环境）特征之间的关联，对收敛效度、发散效度、区分效度和同时效度进行了检验。使用来自七个低收入和中等收入国家的数据重复进行了分析：巴西（n = 1810）、中国（n = 11421）、基里巴斯（n = 8339）、老挝人民民主共和国（n = 7493）、萨摩亚（n = 12191）、汤加（n = 6214）和图瓦卢（n = 549）。相关性和线性回归提供了证据，表明在这些国家样本中，该工具正在捕捉其旨在测量的幼儿发展方面。尽管该工具旨在测量3至5岁儿童的发展，但结果表明它可以有效地应用于2至6岁的儿童。eHCI是免费的，所需的实施资源极少，涵盖了各个领域和能力的发展，并且设计为可以纳入文化和背景概念。在不同的国家背景下，eHCI在心理测量方面似乎很稳健，并且可以用于评估早期政策和项目，以及监测儿童的发展，以跟踪实现可持续发展议程的进展情况。
