The Simple Interactions Tool: Applications of a Novel Video-Coding Method for Quantifying Caregiver-Child Relationships

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Environmental influences play a critical role in early brain development. Throughout infancy and early childhood, children’s interactions with primary caregivers play a key role in shaping the quality of this environment. Responsive caregiving can be characterized by several basic qualities that facilitate socio-emotional and cognitive development: emotional connection with caregivers, reciprocal back and forth interactions, and appropriate support during challenging moments. Despite the wealth of evidence linking these facets of responsive parenting with positive child outcomes (e.g. socio-emotional and cognitive development), methods for quantifying the nature of adult-child interactions are fraught with challenges. This symposium aims to highlight a novel approach to evaluating caregiver-child interactions across childhood in varied contexts: The Simple Interactions Tool video coding system.

Paper 1 (Cameron et al.) presents how the three sub-scales of the Simple Interactions Tool (Connection, Reciprocity, Progression) have been used with preschool-aged children to study the effects of two parenting intervention programs. Paper 2 (Imhof et al.) examines the process by which this measure was adapted for use with younger children (ages 0-3), incorporating microsocial gesture coding to evaluate relationships between caregiver stress and caregiver-infant interactions. Paper 3 (Hernandez et al.) discusses the process of translating and adapting this tool for use with Spanish-speaking families. The overall goal of this symposium is to showcase the flexibility of this novel methodology and its successful application in evaluating responsive parenting behaviors across a wide range of developmental contexts.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Philip Andrew Fisher, University of Oregon

Discussant

• Junlei Li, Harvard University

Individual Presentations

• The Simple Interactions Tool: Studying the Impact of two Intervention Programs with Pre-School age Children - Presenting Author: Judy L Cameron, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Madison Very, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Patrick Healy, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Amelia Potter, University of Calgary; Non-Presenting Author: Jelena Komanchuk, University of Calgary (U of C); Non-Presenting Author: Lani Vargas, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Sachi Penha, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Julianne Wanner, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Sai Bhatte, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Delaney Jones, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Allyson Letavic, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Nicole Letourneau, University of Calgary (U of C); Non-Presenting Author: Jeanette Trauth, University of Pittsburgh

• Applications of the Simple Interactions Tool to Evaluate Responsive Caregiving in Caregiver-Infant Dyads - Presenting Author: Andrea Imhof, University of Oregon; Non-Presenting Author: Ana Hernandez, University of Oregon; Non-Presenting Author: Sihong Liu, Stanford University; Non-Presenting Author: Sarah E Watamura, University of Denver; Non-Presenting Author: Philip Andrew Fisher, University of Oregon

• The Translation, Cross-Cultural Adaptation, and Use of the Simple Interactions – Reciprocity Tool in Spanish - Presenting Author: Ana Hernandez, University of Oregon; Non-Presenting Author: Andrea Imhof, University of Oregon; Non-Presenting Author: Sarah E Watamura, University of Denver; Non-Presenting Author: Philip Andrew Fisher, University of Oregon