Reliability and validity of an observation-based parent–child interaction rating scale for Chinese children aged 0–6 years.

We examined the psychometric properties of a parent-child interaction rating scale (IRS) in Chinese children. We recruited 346 dyads of children aged 0-6 years (M_age = 2.72 years, SD = 1.52 years) and their caregivers from four cities in China. Parent-child interactions were videotaped in a controlled laboratory and coded by two trained coders. Internal reliability and test-retest reliability were used to measure the reliability of test scores from the IRS in our sample. We performed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine the factor structure of the Chinese version of the parent-child interaction rating scale (IRS-C). The third version of the dyadic parent-child interaction coding system (DPICS) was applied to assess the convergent validity of the IRS-C. Test scores from the IRS-C exhibited strong internal consistency (Kuder-Richardson 20 score 0.855) and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.809 over a 1-month interval). Results of confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the five-factor structure for both the child's and caregiver's domains of the IRS-C was suitable for the Chinese sample. Convergent validity in interpretation was also verified with significant correlations between the IRS-C and DPICS. Our findings suggested that the IRS-C produces reliable and valid test scores in the evaluation of parent-child interactions among Chinese children. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).