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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目的:本研究は、子どもの社会能力を構造的に評価する「かかわり指標」を用いて、18か月児の応答性に焦点をあて、社会能力に関連する養育環境の特徴を明らかにすることを目的とした。方法:対象は、18か月児とその養育者172名である。養育者に対する記名自記式質問紙および「かかわり指標」による子どもの「応答性」に対する観察評価を実施した。質問紙内容は、子どもの性別、きょうだいの有無、家族構成、経済状況、両親の年齢、教育レベル、職業、育児環境(4領域13項目)である。結果:応答性得点と育児環境について、対象属性を調整して関連を検討した。その結果、子どもの応答性と、「子どもに本を読み聞かせる機会」および「配偶者の育児協力の機会」との有意な関連がみられた。結論:家庭における適切な子どもへのかかわりや配偶者の育児協力が、18か月児の社会能力に影響する一要因である可能性が示唆された。

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