Observer Impressions (Parent-Youth Interaction Task)
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details on how to obtain this measure, contact
Abstract
Observer Impressions is a live rating system used to code
the three observational tasks that children engage in with their
Primary Caregiver: Daily Debriefing Task (4 minutes), Problem Solving
Activity (7 minutes), and Planning a Positive Activity (5 minutes).
The sequence of tasks is always the same, and occurs in the child's
home, at grades 5 and 8. Observer Impressions is a 58-item measure
that consists of three types of ratings completed by the child interviewer.
The frequencies of various behaviors by parent and child are rated
on a 3 point scales. For the most part, the same behaviors are rated
for each of the tasks, except for 3 task-specific codes.
Categories of ratings are based in part on the Oregon Social Learning
Center's Lab Task Impressions Rating Scale (5th Grade), which can
be found online via OSLC's website (www.oslc.org).
Scales for the PCIT Observer Impressions Scale (Grade 5+)
were obtained from exploratory factor analyses utilizing an Alpha
extraction with an orthogonal rotation on responses from the Normative
sample (n=318). Separate analyses were conducted on the Parent and
Child items. Items 37, 56, 57, and 58 were excluded from the scaling.
The results indicated 5 factors or scales for the Parent items and
6 scales for the Child items. Each scale score was calculated by
taking an average of items comprising the scale if 50% or more of
the item responses were available. The resulting scales, associated
reliability estimates and descriptive indices for the Normative
(Norm) and High Risk Control (HRC) samples are provided below. A
more detailed discussion of the scaling procedure can be found in
the addendum.
All scales used in this Technical Report aggregate similar items
across the 3 tasks in which parent-child dyads participated. Analysts
interested in task-related differences in behavior will need to
consider an alternate scaling algorithm. A note of caution that
the Alpha coefficients for the Parent Negative Physical Contact
and the Child Appropriate Emotional Expression scales are quite
low. For the Parent Negative Physical scale, this is likely due
to extremely low variability of the items that comprise that scale.
Despite this circumstance, a decision to retain this scale was made
on the basis that although infrequent, the presence of this behavior
during the interaction may be very meaningful.
Keywords: Child Behavior, Positive Parenting, Punishment, Task
Orientation.
Administration History
See study
years administered.
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19 November 2002
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