The Translation, Cross-Cultural Adaptation, and Use of the Simple Interactions – Reciprocity Tool in Spanish

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

Abstract

Background: As early life stress can have devastating and long-lasting impacts on a child's development, understanding factors that may mitigate adverse effects is critical. Responsive caregiving is a putative target for intervention as it is malleable to change, may buffer the effects of early life stress, and has been linked to improvements in emotional, social, and cognitive development (Afifi & MacMillan, 2011; Black et al., 2017). To measure caregiver-child interactions, the field has primarily moved towards microsocial coding techniques, evaluating both the quality and quantity of caregiver responsiveness at the moment to moment level and providing more accurate data about caregiver behaviors.

One such coding scheme is the Reciprocity subscale from the Simple Interactions Tool. Specifically, this scale measures contingent responsiveness by having trained coders assess 15-second intervals of recorded caregiver-child interactions. A significant limitation of this scale's application in research and clinical contexts is that it is only available in English.

Hispanic individuals continue to be the largest minority in the United States (Census, 2015), and roughly 13.4% of the U.S. population speaks Spanish; accordingly, having both interventions and assessment measures available in Spanish is critical to the field of child development. Furthermore, because characteristics of caregiver-child interactions depend on both personal and cultural factors, it is necessary to consider how caregiver-child interactions may differ across cultures. This presentation will highlight the process and theory underlying the translation and adaptation of the Reciprocity subscale for use with Spanish-speaking families.

Methods: Our research team followed the guidelines established by Beaton et al. (2000) for cross-culturally adapting self-report measures (see Figure 1 for our modified version of their guidelines). We used these particular guidelines as they were created based on a review of the literature in medical, sociological, and psychological fields. Our team established a training protocol for using the Spanish version of the subscale, including devising a set of training and gold-standard videos for assessing inter-rater reliability. This presentation will also touch upon essential considerations relevant to the translation, validation and adaptation of measures in new languages to guide research teams hoping to translate and culturally adapt other caregiver-child measures.

In addition to discussing the process of creating and validating a Spanish version of the Reciprocity subscale, this presentation will address how this version of the measure can be applied across research contexts. Specifically, we will discuss how the Spanish version of this measure can be used to quantify changes in caregiver-child interactions and evaluate intervention effects following the Spanish version of the strengths-based parenting intervention: Filming Interactions to Nurture Development (FIND).

Authors

• Ana Hernandez, University of Oregon
  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
  Non-Presenting Author