Borrowing from a clinical psychology observational methodology, thin-slice observations were used to assess autism characteristics in toddlers. Thin-slices are short observations taken from a longer behavior stream which are assigned ratings by multiple raters using a 5-point scale. The raters' observations are averaged together to assign a…

Objectives: To determine: (1) the prevalence of harsh punishment among parents in a pediatric clinic, and (2) the sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and stability of a brief screening measure. Methods: A subset of families involved in a study of child maltreatment prevention were recruited for this study. Two items in a parent screening…

Argues that none of the conventional methods for assessing attachment meet all criteria. Describes development of a 100-item sort for assessing secure attachment in toddlers, closely tied to Bowlby's control systems model of attachment. Evaluates the Q-sort in terms of criteria for valid thoery-based assessments that have applicability beyond this…

The validity of the Questionnaire on Resources and Stress (QRS) and the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) was examined in a study of 53 mothers with young children in early intervention programs. Expectations that QRS and PSI scores were related in expected ways were generally confirmed. (Author/LB)

An Australian study of 110 mother-infant dyads and 85 mother-toddler dyads in which the mothers were mentally ill evaluated the effectiveness of the Mother and Child Risk Observation (MACRO). Results found that MACRO offers a convenient framework for assessing risk and interpreting the impact of maternal mental illness upon children. (Author/CR)

The Infant Parent Social Interaction Code was developed to measure infant-parent interaction utilizing four parent variables, four infant variables, and one dyadic variable for which operational definitions were developed. Preliminary and validation studies with a total of 232 infants and toddlers suggest the measure reveals important interactive…

A review of 36 social interaction measures found that there are no measures available to evaluate infants and preschool children's basic capacity for social interaction. The available measures are described and grouped into parent-child interaction, social skills, social competence, play, adaptive behavior, communication, general development, and…

Examined psychometric properties of Parenting Stress Index. Subjects were 191 low-income, urban African American mothers. Found acceptable subscale internal consistency and stability over six months. Concurrent validity revealed high convergence across measures among mothers reporting consistent stress. Subjects reported elevated stress levels in…