Naive Observers' Ratings of Behavior: A Multi-Construct Validation Study

描述（由申请人提供）：一种对社会行为进行有效、透明、可复制测量的工具，将增进对儿童健康发展途径的理解。这个应用程序将验证社会行为的实时、连续测量。测量将由多个天真的评分者（使用操纵杆）进行，他们的评分将被汇总以提高其精度和普遍性。将使用四个已经获得的专业编码数据集进行连续评级。评分将包括高危婴儿的情绪效价，中产阶级夫妇的共同参与，听力受损儿童的象征性游戏，以及有行为问题儿童的家庭的消极情绪。该应用程序将检查使用该连续评级软件进行测量的可靠性，以及这些评级的收敛性、并发性和预测性有效性。幼稚评分者的连续评分与专家编码员已经获得的可靠测量值之间的高度一致性表明了收敛效度。行为品质的连续评分在各组之间（例如，正常与听力受损）也会有所不同，并随着年龄（例如，9个月、18个月和24个月）和不同情况（例如，面对面与面对面）的变化而变化，其方式与专家编码测量中所见的方式相似。在同一评估中所做的连续评级（如婴儿-母亲感知情绪的时间序列）之间的显著关联将表明并发效度。持续评分和后来的结果（如联合参与和语言结果）之间的显著关联将表明预测有效性。鼓励健康发展包括了解典型和有风险儿童与家庭互动的社会行为。目前的行为测量系统通常是复杂和耗时的，这对结果的复制造成了障碍。为了最大限度地提高对公共卫生的影响，将提供用户可调版本的连续评级软件，供调查人员下载。这将允许调查观察者对大量健康相关构念的连续评级。有了这个软件，幼稚的评分者可以得到简短、精确的结构描述，这增强了研究结果与卫生服务提供者和政策制定者的相关性，因为结果将反映出一个科学定义的、简单的观点。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A tool for obtaining efficient, transparent, replicable measurement of social behavior would increase understanding of pathways to healthy child development. This application will validate real-time, continuous measurements of social behavior. Measurements will be made by multiple naive raters (using a joystick), whose ratings are aggregated to increase their precision and generalizability. Continuous ratings will be conducted using four already-acquired expertly coded data-sets. Ratings will include the emotional valence of high-risk infants, the joint-engagement of middle-class dyads, the symbolic play of hearing impaired children, and the negativity of families with children who have behavior problems. The application will examine the reliability of measurements made using this continuous rating software, and the convergent, concurrent, and predictive validity of these ratings. High concordance between naive raters' continuous ratings and the reliable measurements already obtained by expert coders would indicate convergent validity. Continuous ratings of behavioral qualities are also expected to differ between groups (e.g., normal vs. hearing impaired), and to change with age (i.e. 9, 18, & 24 months) and between situations (i.e., face-to-face vs. still-face) in a manner parallel to those seen in the expert coded measures. Significant associations between continuous ratings (such as time-series of infant-mother perceived emotion) made during the same assessment will indicate concurrent validity. Significant associations between continuous ratings and later outcome (such as between joint engagement and language outcome) would indicate predictive validity. Encouraging healthy development involves understanding the social behavior of typical and at-risk children interacting with their families. Current behavioral measurement systems are typically complex and time-consuming, which creates barriers to the replication of results. To maximize public health impact, a user-adjustable version of the continuous rating software will be made available for download by investigators. This will allow investigations of observers' continuous ratings of a plethora of health-relevant constructs. With this software, naive raters are provided with brief, precise descriptions of constructs, which enhances the relevance of findings to health providers and policy makers because results will reflect a scientifically defined, simple view of the construct measured.