Background We examined the longitudinal relationship between children's social competence at eighteen months of age and the caregiver's attitude of the importance of "praise", with particular emphasis on the change in their attitude when their children were four and nine months old. Methods A total of 176 children with their parents from two Japanese cities were recruited for this study. The children's social competence and the parent's competence for rearing children were assessed when the toddlers were eighteen months old, using the IRS (Interaction Rating Scale) that was developed by the authors. Results The parent's continuous attitude towards the importance of "praise" when children at both four and nine months old improved the children's level of social competence at eighteen months old, after controlling for such factors as children's gender, family type, sibling, mother's and father's age, mother's and father's career, mother's and father's educational level, and family income. Conclusion It is interesting that even infants of four to nine months old were affected by the parent's continuous attitude towards the importance of "praise" and this attitude affects the development of the child's social competence later.

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Objective The purpose of this study is to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Interaction Rating Scale (IRS) for assessing a child's social competence. We examined the internal consistency of IRS and criterion-related validity of IRS and NCAST Parent-Child Interaction Program Teaching Scale (NCATS). Methods The samples of this study ware 211 dyads of children and their caregivers who participated in the Japan Science and Technology Agency project. To evaluate the criterion-related validity of IRS, an image of the setting of the child-caregiver interaction was coded by both IRS and NCATS. The correlation between each subscale of IRS and the demographic information was calculated using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Considering the internal consistency of IRS, Cronbach's alpha was used. Pearson's correlation coefficient was calculated to assess the criterion-related validity between the subscales of IRS and NCATS. Results Cronbach's alpha of IRS was 0.91, and in the domains of the child and caregiver, Cronbach's alpha values were 0.88 and 0.85, respectively. Pearson's correlation coefficient between IRS total score and NCATS total score was 0.89, the child's total score was 0.70, and the caregiver's total score was 0.98 (p<0.001). Discussion The high internal consistency of IRS and significant correlations of results of IRS with those of NCATS confirmed the reliability and criterion-related validity of IRS.

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(Objective) The aim of this study was to clarify the correlation between the characteristics of the child-rearing environment of infants at 18 months of age and their responsiveness. (Methods) One hundred and seventy-two infants and parents/guardians who were registered in the Japan Children's Study project participated in the study. Interaction Rating Scale (IRS) was used to evaluate children's social skills and parenting at 18 month. Also Parents/guardians filled out a questionnaire regarding the child's gender, siblings, family structure and financial condition, parents' age, educational background, occupation, and child-rearing environment at home. (Results) The responsiveness of children at 18 months of age correlated significantly with "having a chance of reading books to child" and "having spousal support for child-rearing". (Conclusion) The results of this study suggested that Quality of child-rearing environment and spousal supports were important factors for social development of children at 18 months of age.

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