1-210 - Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Measurement in Early Life

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Quality measurement is crucial in both research and applied settings. Ideally, tools for measuring children’s attributes will be comprehensive, developmentally appropriate, based on sound information, and efficient. Advances are constantly being made that help improve early-life measurement along all these lines. Accordingly, the purpose of this symposium is to highlight some of these recent methodological developments and techniques. The first talk illustrates the power of Item Response Theory (IRT) and related techniques for developing more efficient questionnaires in which length is minimized without sacrificing either precision or content coverage. The second talk emphasizes the importance of considering both child and informant characteristics – specifically psychopathology -- and tests whether parents either with or without a history of a unipolar depressive disorder use parent-report questionnaires differently (i.e., measurement invariance). The third talk shows how daily diary methods can be an effective tool for distinguishing between developmentally typical and problematic behavior when assessing childhood internalizing symptoms. The fourth talk reviews how psychophysiological and behavioral performance indices can be better integrated for a greater understanding of neurobehavioral development, while also highlighting many of the unique challenges and pitfalls associated with using these methods to measure popular individual difference constructs. Together, these four studies present several useful insights regarding the measurement of children’s psychological characteristics that can be applied across a wide range of contexts and topics.

Sub Unit

• Methods, History, Theory

Chairs

• Angus Clark, University of Michigan

• Emily Durbin, Michigan State University

Individual Presentations

• How Item Response Theory Can Improve Assessment Efficiency: An Illustration Using the Child Behavior Questionnaire - Presenting Author: Angus Clark, University of Michigan; Non-Presenting Author: Emily Durbin, Michigan State University; Non-Presenting Author: Brent Donnellan, Michigan State University; Non-Presenting Author: Sam Putnam, Bowdoin College; Non-Presenting Author: Tricia K Neppl, Iowa State University

• Evaluating maternal depression-related bias in reports of child temperament: An investigation of measurement invariance - Presenting Author: Thomas M Olino, Temple University, Department of Psychology; Non-Presenting Author: ELizabeth P Hayden, Western University; Non-Presenting Author: Dan Klein, Stony Brook University

• Quantifying Normative Expression of Internalizing Behaviors in Preschool-Aged Children: Advances Using a Daily Diary Method - Presenting Author: Sara J Bufferd, California State University - San Marcos; Non-Presenting Author: Lea R Dougherty, University of Maryland, College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Thomas M Olino, Temple University, Department of Psychology

• Psychophysiological and Performance Indices from ERP Tasks Pose Unique Measurement Challenges - Presenting Author: Emily Durbin, Michigan State University; Non-Presenting Author: Jason M Moser, Michigan State University; Non-Presenting Author: Rachel Stacey, Michigan State University; Non-Presenting Author: Angus Clark, University of Michigan