Caregiver-reported development in term and preterm infants from birth to nine months of age: Psychometrics of the Pediatrac™ social/communication/cognition domain
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2023
Department/School
Psychology
Publication Title
Psychological Assessment
Abstract
Term and preterm neonates were assessed at the newborn (NB) period (term, term equivalent) and at 2, 4, 6, and 9 months in a study of the psychometric properties of the Social/Communication/Cognition (SCG) domain of PediaTrac™ v3.0, a novel caregiver-based developmental monitoring instrument. Item response theory (IRT) was used to model item parameters and estimate theta, an index of the latent trait, social/communication/cognition. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to further clarify the dimensionality of the domain. In a cohort of 571 caregiver-infant dyads (331 term, 240 preterm), mean theta values could be reliably estimated at all time periods, with term infants demonstrating significantly more advanced social/communication/cognition abilities at 9 months of age. Item discrimination and item difficulty of the 15, 15, 35, 47, and 57 items at the NB, 2-, 4-, 6-, and 9-month periods, respectively, could be reliably modeled across the range of ability. Total Information for the SCG domain was high and the reliability ranged from 0.97 to 0.99 (NB = .98, 2 month = .97, 4 month = .98, 6 month = .99 and 9 month = .99). EFA revealed second-order factors at each time period, with two factors at the NB period (affect/emotional expression, social responsiveness) accounting for 43% of variance; three factors at 2, 4, and 6 months (affect/emotional expression, social responsiveness imitation/emerging communication), accounting for 43%, 34%, and 34% of the variance, respectively; and four factors at 9 months (imitation/communication, nonverbal/gestural communication, affect expression, and social responsiveness), accounting for 34% of the variance.
Link to Published Version
Recommended Citation
Lajiness-O’Neill, R., Warschausky, S., Huth-Bocks, A., Taylor, H., Berglund, P., Staples, A., Lukomski, A., Brooks, J., Cano, J., Raghunathan, T., & PediaTrac Project Consortium. (2023). Caregiver-reported development in term and preterm infants from birth to nine months of age: Psychometrics of the Pediatrac™ social/communication/cognition domain. Psychological Assessment, 35(7), 589–601. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0001235
Comments
R. Lajiness-O'Neill and A. D. Staples are faculty in EMU's Department of Psychology.
A. Lukomski is a faculty member in EMU's School of Nursing.
J. Brooks is a faculty member in EMU's School of Health Sciences.