A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire Very Short Form: An Item Response Theory Analysis of Infant Temperament in New Zealand

Abstract

The Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised Very Short Form (IBQ-R VSF; Putnam, Helbig, Gartstein, Rothbart, & Leerkes, 2014 ) is a newly published measure of infant temperament with a 3-factor structure. Recently Peterson et al. ( 2017 ) suggested that a 5-factor structure (Positive Affectivity/Surgency, Negative Emotionality, Orienting Capacity, Affiliation/Regulation, and Fear) was more parsimonious and showed promising reliability and predictive validity in a large, diverse sample. However, little is known about the 5-factor model's precision across the temperament dimensions range and whether it discriminates equally well across ethnicities. A total of 5,567 mothers responded to the IBQ-R VSF in relation to their infants (N = 5,639) between 23 and 52 weeks old. Using item response theory, we conducted a series of 2 parameter logistic item response models and found that 5 IBQ-R VSF temperament dimensions showed a good distribution of estimates across each latent trait range and these estimates centered close to the population mean. The IBQ-R VSF was also similarly precise across 4 ethnic groups (European, Māori, Pacific peoples, and Asians), suggesting that it can be used as comparable measure for infant temperament in a diversity of ethnic groups.

Development of an Index of Socio-Emotional Competence for Preschool Children in the Growing Up in New Zealand Study

“…The original IBQ-R VSF was designed to identify three temperament factors: Negative Emotionality, Positive Affect/Surgency and Orienting/Regulatory Capacity (Putnam et al, 2014). However, Peterson et al (2017a), using the current study's cohort, found that the three-factor structure of the IBQ-R-VSF had poor model fit when administered to 5,639 mothers of infants aged 23 to 54 weeks. Instead, they found evidence for a five-factor structure including broadly the original three factors: Negative Emotionality, Positive Affect/Surgency and Orienting Capacity (revised from Orienting/Regulatory Capacity), and two new factors: Affiliation/Regulation and Fear.…”

“…Instead, they found evidence for a five-factor structure including broadly the original three factors: Negative Emotionality, Positive Affect/Surgency and Orienting Capacity (revised from Orienting/Regulatory Capacity), and two new factors: Affiliation/Regulation and Fear. The five-factor model demonstrated acceptable model fit on two randomly created samples of more than 2,300 participants: sample 1, χ 2 (619) = 6,384; χ 2 /df = 10.31, p < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.06; CFI = 0.77; gamma hat = 0.99; SRMR = 0.06; Sample 2, χ 2 (619) = 6,355; χ 2 /df = 10.27, p < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.06; CFI = 0.77; gamma hat = 0.99; SRMR = 0.06 (Peterson et al, 2017a). While the CFI was low for both samples, this is not surprising as the CFI is sensitive to complex models (Fan and Sivo, 2007).…”

The Predictive Value of Head Circumference Growth during the First Year of Life on Early Child Traits

“…Although socio-emotional adjustment in early childhood can be conceptualized in several ways, studies have often focused on the assessment of temperament. Temperament core dimensions includes negative affect, surgency/extraversion and effortful control which, respectively, have been shown to confer risk for behavioral problems and affective disorders 19 – 21 , communication development and children’s conversational skills 22 , 23 , and increased risk for the development of externalizing disorders and problems related to attention 19 , 24 , 25 . Finally, the literature on early childhood development has also consistently identified poor cognitive and motor abilities in young children as a shared risk factor in a plethora of neurodevelopmental disorders 26 – 28 .…”

A Short Form of the Chinese Version of the Weinstein Noise Sensitivity Scale through Optimal Test Assembly

“…In view that higher test information represents higher accuracy of estimating the latent trait level, we proposed the WNSS-8 as a better short version [32]. Despite that there are no standard criteria for discrimination parameter, items with low discrimination, such as <0.4, were reported to have lower ability for differentiating the latent trait levels, carry smaller amounts of information, and are less able to reduce the estimation error [47]. The discrimination parameters for the items of the WNSS-8 ranged from 0.587 to 1.775, corresponding to moderate-to-high discrimination for assessment of noise sensitivity.…”