Building Strong Families 36-Month Follow-Up: Instrument #3 Parent-Child Interaction Observation

PARENT-CHILD ASSESSMENT

Parent-child interaction will be assessed using the Three Bags Task (Brady-Smith, C., C. O-Brien, L. Berlin, and A. Ware, 1999).

Three Bags Task. The Three Bags task will be coded with the Early Head Start Child Parent Interaction Rating Scales (EHS Scales; Brady-Smith, Fauth, and Brooks Gunn 2005). Observers are trained to code six parent and three child behaviors, each on a seven-point scale with “1” indicating a very low incidence of the behavior and “7” indicating a high incidence of the behavior. Across the six parent scales, there are three scales assessing supportive interaction behaviors including (1) sensitivity (for example, responding to child’s cues), (2) positive regard (for example, expression of affection), and (3) stimulation of cognitive development (for example, quality of effortful teaching). The parent scales also assess three dimensions of unsupportive interaction behaviors including (1) detachment (for example, lack of awareness), (2) intrusiveness (for example, exerts control over child), and (3) negative regard (for example, anger toward the child). The child scales include engagement of the parent (for example, initiates interaction with the parent), sustained attention (for example, involvement with toys), and negativity toward the parent (for example, anger toward the parent). The parenting constructs have demonstrated concurrent and predictive validity with child cognitive and language outcomes when used with a sample with similar characteristics to BSF (Tamis-Lamonda, Shannon, Cabrera and Lamb 2004).

References

Brady-Smith, C., C. O-Brien, L. Berlin, and A. Ware. “24-Month Child–Parent Interaction Rating Scales for the Three-Bag Assessment.” New York: Teachers College Press, 1999.

Tamis-LeMonda, Catherine, Jaqueline D. Shannon, Natasha Cabrera, and Michael E. Lamb. “Fathers and Mothers at Play with Their 2- and 3-Year-Olds: Contributions to Language and Cognitive Development.” Child Development, vol. 75, 2004, pp. 1806-1820.