Assessing mother-infant bonding: reliability of the recorded interaction task

ABSTRACT

Objective

This study examined the intra- and inter-rater reliability of the Recorded Interaction Task (RIT); a novel tool to assess mother-infant bonding via observational methods.

Background

Mother-infant bonding describes the reciprocal early emotional connection between mother and infant. Whilst various tools exist to assess mother-infant bonding, many incorrectly confuse this construct with mother-infant attachment. Further, available tools are limited to those that employ self-report methods, thus may reflect perceived behaviour, rather than actual behaviour. The RIT is a novel tool for observational assessment of mother-infant bonding. A standard interaction between mother and infant is recorded, and later assessed against specified bonding-related behaviours. Before its use in research, reliability testing must be undertaken to ensure the RIT may be used consistently.

Methods

The RIT was administered to 15 mother-infant dyads. Participant recordings were assessed by three trained raters at two time points, using the RIT observation scoring sheet. Intra-rater reliability was determined by comparing scores at each time point for each rater. Inter-rater reliability was determined by assessing reliability of scores at the first time point.

Results

Strong intra-rater reliability (ICC >0.86) and fair inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.55) were observed.

Conclusion

The current findings support the RIT’s potential to reliably assess mother-infant bonding.

KEYWORDS:

• Mother-child relations
• behaviour observation techniques
• reproducibility of results
• bonding behaviours
• infant

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Consent for publication

All authors have read and approved the final manuscript and consented to its submission for consideration of publication.

Additional information

Funding

The authors reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.