Table 2.
Summary of Study Measures
| Variable | Measure | Data collection | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Methoda | Collectedb | ||
| Primary outcomes | |||
| Parental verbal responsivity | StimQ-T [47]: 4 items on a 4-point scale E.g. “Talk about the day while your child is eating”, summed to produce a total score between 4 and 16. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
| Home learning activities | Home activities with child: 5 items on a 4-point scale assessing parental engagement of child in home activities that stimulate development [48] E.g. “Read books to your child”, summed to produce a total score between 4 and 20. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
| Secondary outcomes | |||
| Parent–child interactions | |||
| Parental warmth | Warmth: 6 items on a 5-point scale scale from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) [40], “Thinking about the last 6 months, how often do you…” E.g. “Hug or hold your child for no reason”, summed to produce a total score between 6 and 30. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
| Parental irritability | Irritability: 5 items on a 5-point scale from LSAC [40], “Thinking about the last 4 weeks, how often have you…” E.g. “Lost your temper with your child”, summed to produce a total score between 5 and 25. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
| Parent interactions | Indicator of Parent – Child Interaction: Caregiver interactions coded as ‘facilitators’ or ‘interrupters’ [42] E.g. “conveys acceptance and warmth” and “uses criticism or harsh voice”. Interactions are rated on a 4-point scale of relative frequency, from 0 = never to 3 = often/consistently. | Observed | Pre, post, FU |
| Home environment | |||
| Home literacy | Home Literacy Environment Scale: 6 items on various scales, [49], E.g. “How many books does your child own?”, summed to produce a total score ranging from 0 to 11. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
| Disorganisation | Confusion, Hubbub and Order Scale (CHAOS-SF): 6 items on a yes/no scale [50, 51], E.g. “The atmosphere in our home is calm”, summed to produce a total score ranging from 0 to 4. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
| Parent focussed outcomes | |||
| Psychosocial distress | Kessler-6 (K6): 6-item psychosocial screener on a 5-point scale assessing emotional distress in the last 4 weeks [52]. “About how often did you feel:” E.g. “nervous”, summed to produce a total score between 0 and 24. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
| Wellbeing | SF-12: 12-item health related quality of life [53] on various scales E.g. “How much does your health limit you in climbing several flights of stairs?” and “How much of the time during the past 4 weeks have you felt calm and peaceful?”, producing a Physical Health summary score and a Mental Health summary score. | CATI | Pre, post |
| Psychological adjustment | I-PANAS-SF: 5-item positive affect subscale on a 5-point scale [54], “Thinking about yourself in the last 4 weeks, about how often did you feel…E.g. “alert?”, summed to produce a total score between 5 and 25. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
| Parent confidence | 1 item on a 5-point scale, overall efficacy as a parent from LSAC [55], “Overall, as a parent, do you feel that you are…” E.g. “a better than average parent”, producing a score between 1 and 5. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
| Parental self-efficacy | 4 items on a 5-point scale, infant and toddler versions of parental self-efficacy from LSAC [39], “In general, do you feel that you are…?” E.g. “Very good at keeping your child amused”, summed to produce a total score ranging from 5 to 20. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
| Community connectedness | Use of early childhood services: 6 items on a yes/no scale, study-developed to assess past, current or intended use of similar early childhood programs. “Have you or your child ever attended any other services or programs to assist you and your child?” E.g. “early intervention program”. | CATI | Post |
| Contact with other parents: 2 items assessing contact with other parents outside the program [39] “Have you had contact with any of the other parents outside the sessions?” and if so, “Do you think this contact will continue?” | CATI | Post | |
| Child focussed outcomes | |||
| Communication skills | Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) Communication subscale [56]: 6 items on a 3-point scale. E.g. “Does your child point to, pat, or try to pick up pictures in a book?” Scored yes = 10, sometimes = 5, not yet = 0; summed to a total score between 0 and 60. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
| Vocabulary | MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) [57, 58]. Three age versions of the Short Form vocabulary checklists. Level I, up to 18 months: 89 words the child “understands” or “understands and says” (e.g. “mummy” and “meow”). Level II, 19–30 months: 101 words (e.g. “book” and “finish”) and 1 item assessing use of word combinations. Level III, 31 months and older: 100 words (e.g. “then” and “today”), 12 sentence pairs to evaluate complexity of language use, and 12 yes/no items assessing language comprehension. | Parent-report | Pre, post, FU |
| Early Communication Indicator (ECI) [59]: frequency of gestures, vocalisations, single words and multiple words generated for each minute of 6-min play activity. Instances of communication are tallied, with weightings for single words (multiplied by 2) and multiple words (multiplied by 3) to produce a total communication score. | Observed | Pre, post, FU | |
| Socio-emotional skills | ASQ Personal-Social subscale [56]: 6 items on a 3-point scale, E.g., “Does your child play with a doll or stuffed animal by hugging it?” Scored yes = 10, sometimes = 5, not yet = 0; summed to a total score 0–60. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
| General development | ASQ Fine Motor subscale: [56] 6 items on a 3-point scale, E.g. “Does your child stack three small blocks or toys on top of each other by herself?” Scored yes = 10, sometimes = 5, not yet = 0; summed to a total score 0–60. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
| Process measures | |||
| Parent engagement | Attendance checklist and facilitator ratings of parent engagement [39] E.g. “Parent engagement with other parents” on a 5-point scale from 1 = did not talk with other parents to 5 = talked to many other parents. | Staff ratings | Each session |
| Program delivery | Program quality and integrity: 6 items rated by facilitators [39], E.g. “Level of rapport and engagement established” on a 5-point scale from 1 = much less than expected to 5 = much better than expected. | Staff ratings | Each session |
| Program intensity | Study designed, facilitator checklist of content coverage. | Staff ratings | Each session |
| Parent satisfaction | 6 items on a 4-point scale assessing parents satisfaction with the program, staff and knowledge gains [38] E.g. “Overall, how satisfied or dissatisfied were you with the program?” | CATI | Post |
| Participation barriers | 13 items on a yes/no scale assessing barriers to program participation [38] E.g. “difficulties relating to other parents”, “work commitments”. | CATI | Post |
| Staff training | Ratings of program quality (2 items: clarity, usefulness), preparedness to deliver it (3 items: confidence, well-prepared, difficulty), and satisfaction with training (5 items: clarity, usefulness of materials/presentation) on 5-point scales. | Staff ratings | After training |
| Staff self-assessment | 6 skills for program delivery with the target population, E.g. “Identifying specific needs of families” on a 5-point scale from 1 = ‘no level of skill/knowledge in the area’ to 5 = ‘advanced level of skill/knowledge’. | Staff ratings | Before, after training |
| Covariates | |||
| Demographics | Parent age, ethnicity, language spoken, education, income, employment status family structure and size | CATI | Pre |
| Child characteristics | Child age, ethnicity, general health, disability, special health services, birth weight | CATI | Pre |
| Child temperament | 4 items on 3-point and 4-point scales, modified version of the NEILS Scales of Developmental Competency [38, 60], E.g. “Would you say that your child is easy to manage, sometimes hard to manage or often hard to manage?”, scores ranging from 4 to 12. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
| Parent depression | Single item yes/no rating from LSAC, “In the past year, have you had 2 weeks or more during which you felt sad, blue or depressed, or lost pleasure in the things that you usually cared about or enjoyed?” (0 = no; 1 = yes). | CATI | Pre |
| Parent coping | Single item on a 5-point scale from LSAC, “How well do you think you are coping?” producing a score 0–5. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
| Stressful life events | List of Threatening Experiences (LTE-Q): 7-item yes/no list of life adverse life events in last 12 months, [61] E.g. “You had a major financial difficulty”, producing a total score between 0 and 7. | CATI | Pre, post, FU |
aCATI = Computer Assisted Telephone Interview
bPre = completed prior to program commencement; post = completed after last program session, approximately 12 weeks after pre; follow-up (FU) = completed 32 weeks after pre