Ease of Caregiving for Children: Re-Validation of Psychometric Properties of the Measure for Children with Cerebral Palsy up to 11 Years of Age

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To re-validate stability and hierarchal ordering of items, test–retest reliability, and construct validity of the Ease of Caregiving for Children measure for parents of children with cerebral palsy (CP) up to 11 years of age.

Methods: Participants were 613 parents of children with CP between 1.5 and 11 years of age. Parents completed Ease of Caregiving for Children and both parents and therapists classified children’s levels of gross motor, manual and communication functions.

Results: Rasch analysis indicated acceptable fit of items, stable item calibration, and logical ordering of items by difficulty. Test–retest reliability was good: ICC = 0.69 (95% CI 0.52–0.81). For construct validity, ease of caregiving was higher for parents of children with higher functioning compared to parents of children with lower functioning, p < .001.

Conclusions: Ease of Caregiving for Children is a unidimensional, reliable and valid measure of physical caregiving for parents of children with CP 1.5–11 years.

KEYWORDS:

• Cerebral palsy
• ease of caregiving
• family-centered care
• measurement
• physical caregiving

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the Move and PLAY and On Track study teams, participating sites, children and their families.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Education, National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research [grant number H133G060254]; Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute [grant number 5321]; Canadian Institutes of Health Research [grant numbers MOP-119276 and MOP-81107].