Validation of Infant-Toddler Mental Health Measures

描述（由申请人提供）：最近的估计表明，10%至12%的1岁和2岁儿童患有需要干预的心理健康问题。然而，大多数有社会情感/行为问题的婴幼儿没有得到任何心理健康服务。尽管最近的立法（IDEA, 1997）要求国家早期干预计划为社会情感发展问题提供服务，但这种未满足的需求仍然存在，部分原因是用于评估婴幼儿社会情感问题和能力的措施存在局限性。本研究将检验两种父母报告测量1岁和2岁儿童社会情绪问题和能力的临床有效性：(1)一个筛选器，婴儿-幼儿简短社会情绪评估（BITSEA）；(2)一个更长的测量，婴幼儿社会和情感评估（ITSEA）。这些措施评估内化、外化、调节、适应不良和非典型问题，以及社会情感能力。在早期的研究中，BITSEA和ITSEA （B/ITSEA）都证明了可靠的测试-重测试和评估间可靠性。对其有效性的初步支持来自于它们与其他家长报告措施的关联以及对儿童问题行为的观察评级。然而，为了改善迫切需要的早期识别和干预工作，至关重要的是建立它们在识别和表征临床显著问题方面的有效性。在拟议的研究中，B/ITSEA将在临床参考样本（N~200）和社会人口学匹配的比较样本（N~200）中根据共识的精神病学诊断状态和亲子互动的观察性评估进行验证。本研究的主要目的是评估以下方法的有效性：(1)B/ITSEA在识别具有共识社会情绪诊断的儿童方面的有效性；(2)识别特定领域障碍儿童的主要ITSEA领域（即内化、外化和失调）；(3) B/ITSEA在亲子关系干扰检测中的作用；(4)ITSEA能力域。一旦得到验证，BITSEA和ITSEA将促进筛查和早期干预工作，以及在普通人群和临床人群中描述社会情感和行为问题早期过程的研究工作。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Recent estimates indicate that 10% to 12% of 1 - and 2-year-olds suffer from mental health problems that warrant intervention. Yet, the majority of infants and toddlers with social-emotional/behavioral problems do not receive any mental health services. This unmet need occurs despite recent legislation (IDEA, 1997) requiring state early intervention programs to provide services for problems in social-emotional development and arises, in part, from limitations in measures that have been available for assessing social-emotional problems and competencies in infants and toddlers. The work proposed in this application will examine the clinical validity of two parent-report measures of social-emotional problems and competencies in 1- and 2-year-old children: (1) a screener, the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA); and (2) a longer measure, the Infant-Toddler Social & Emotional Assessment (ITSEA). These measures assess internalizing, externalizing, regulatory, maladaptive and atypical problems, as well as social-emotional competence. In an earlier study, both the BITSEA and ITSEA (B/ITSEA) demonstrated solid test-retest and inter-rater reliability. Preliminary support for their validity comes from their associations with other parent-report measures and from observational ratings of child problem behaviors. However, to improve critically needed early identification and intervention efforts, it is crucial to establish their validity in identifying and characterizing clinically significant problems. In the proposed study, the B/ITSEA will be validated against consensus psychiatric diagnostic status and observational assessments of parent-child interactions in a clinic-referred sample (N~200) and a sociodemographically matched comparison sample (N~200). The primary goals of the proposed work are to evaluate the validity of: (1) the B/ITSEA in identifying children with any consensus social-emotional diagnosis; (2) the major ITSEA domains (i.e., internalizing, externalizing and dysregulation) in identifying children with disorders in specific domains; (3) the B/ITSEA in detecting parent-child relational disturbances and (4) the ITSEA Competence domain. Once validated, the BITSEA and ITSEA will facilitate screening and early intervention efforts, as well as research endeavors to characterize the early course of social-emotional and behavior problems in both general and clinical populations.