Introducing a Novel Online Observation of Parenting Behavior: Reliability and Validation

SYNOPSIS

Objective. Observations of parents with their children are important for better understanding the critical role that parents play in their children’s adjustment, but resource limitations commonly compromise assessment. A novel online observation tool, Etch-a-Sketch Online (ESO), is introduced that allows resource-efficient observations in the family home. Design. Study 1 was a preliminary, cross-sectional study of 20 mothers with their singleton children (M = 5.96 years). Mothers were observed using both ESO (recorded via Skype) and a traditional Etch-a Sketch task recorded during a home-visit; mothers’ positive and negative parenting was coded from these observations. Study 2 was a longitudinal study of 119 mothers and their young twins. Mothers’ ESO-observed positive parenting and negative parenting at Time 1 (M = 5.51 years) were examined as predictors of children’s disruptive behavior at Time 2 (M = 6.04 years) controlling for mothers’ Time 2 self-reported positive and negative parenting. Results. Study 1 provided preliminary evidence of inter-rater reliability and convergent validity of ESO-observations. Study 2 supported this evidence of inter-rater reliability and ESO’s convergent validity as well as providing predictive validity. ESO-observed parenting at Time 1 was associated with children’s disruptive behavior at Time 2, over and above concurrent maternal reports of their own parenting. Conclusions. ESO shows promise in providing the means for detailed assessment of parenting processes in the home.

ADDRESSES AND AFFILIATIONS

Dr B. R. Oliver, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK, SE14 6NW. Tel: [phone]. Email: [email protected]. Alison Pike is at University of Sussex.

ARTICLE INFORMATION

Conflict of Interest Disclosures

Each author signed a form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. No authors reported any financial or other conflicts of interest in relation to the work described.

Ethical Principles

For Study 1, informed consent was obtained, with ethical approval from the University of Sussex Science & Technology Cross-schools Research Ethics committee. For Study 2, informed consent was collected at each study stage, with ethical approval from NHS Health Research Authority, National Research Ethics Service and University of Sussex Science & Technology Cross-schools Research Ethics committees. The authors affirm having followed professional ethical guidelines in preparing this work. These guidelines include obtaining informed consent from human participants, maintaining ethical treatment and respect for the rights of human or animal participants, and ensuring the privacy of participants and their data, such as ensuring that individual participants cannot be identified in reported results or from publicly available original or archival data.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Katie Mark, Rachel Latham, and Alex Earl for data collection and the core team of coders. We are very grateful to the families who participated in both studies. The ideas and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors alone, and endorsement by the Goldsmiths, University of London and University of Sussex is not intended and should not be inferred.