The children's developmental play instrument (CDPI): a validity study

Abstract

This is a construct validity study of The Children's Developmental Play Instrument (CDPI), a multidimensional scale to measure play activity among mainstream children based on the psychoanalytic concepts of coping and defense strategies. The focus of this study is upon four play styles: Adaptive; Impulsive; Inhibited/Conflicted, and Disorganized. Ten-minute videotapes of 71 children between the ages of 1.3 and 6.1 years are analyzed using correlational analysis. Good to excellent reliability on this data set is established by Kappa ratings of two independent raters. Factor analysis of the data reveals three underlying clusters of variables corresponding to the following play styles; Adaptive; Impulsive/Disorganized; Conflicted/Inhibited. These results provide support for the construct validity of the CDPI and suggest the need for continued research. The CDPI has potential use as a tool for teachers, researchers and practitioners across professions. In addition, categories defined in the CDPI can be helpful in assisting parents to observe and understand the play activity of their children.

Keywords:

• construct validity
• children's play
• psychoanalysis
• mainstream
• play styles
• coping and defensive strategies

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to Yana Kuchirko M.A. who assisted me in every step of this research. Her support and wisdom were invaluable. Archived videotapes of children playing were obtained from The Pacella Parent-Child Center, The New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, The Little Missionary Preschool, and Videotives. The author expresses appreciation to the following individuals for their cooperation to make this research possible, Dr. Leon Hoffman, Ms. Eileen Johnson, Professor George Forman, and Jamie Broadhead. The statistics consultant for this project was Dr. Marc Glassman. Ms. Aden Ratner-Stauber participated in the ratings for the reliability study. This research was supported in part by funds received from The American Psychoanalytic Association (APSAA) and The International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA).

Notes

¹ Protection of human subjects' approval was given by the IRB of The New York Psychoanalytic Institute, Bernard Maskit Ph.D., Chair.