Reliability and validity of standardized Chinese version of Urban Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment.

Aims: To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (CITSEA).

Study Design: A cross-sectional survey through parent self-administered questionnaires in Chinese urban communities. Fourteen cities from the Southern, Northern, Eastern, Western and Central China were involved.

Subjects: A total of 5323 healthy toddlers (2690 boys and 2633 girls) aged 12 to 36 months from the 14 cities recruited through a multi-stage sampling scheme.

Outcome Measures: Self-administered questionnaire was employed to collect the social demographic data, and the Chinese translation of ITSEA was used to collect data on children's social and emotional behavior.

Results: The reliability and validity of CITSEA were examined by standard psychometric methods. 1) The test-retest reliability of four broad domains ranged from 0.78 to 0.89 at the significant level p<0.001; 2) Split-half reliability ranged from 0.82 to 0.90 (p<0.001); 3) The alpha coefficient was noticed to range from 0.79 to 0.88, which demonstrated good internal consistency. Furthermore, as is hypothesized, the score of CITSEA domains was significantly correlated with subscale's score of the Child Behavior Checklist 2/3 (CBCL2/3) and dimension's score of China Toddler Temperament. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated a good and reliable match of the model, indicating that CITSEA outlines the social and emotional development of Chinese urban children aged 12 to 36 months.

Conclusion: The Chinese version of ITSEA is valid and the psychometric properties of this translated version (including its reliability and validity) are at an acceptable standard. It can be used as an instrument for assessing social and emotional problems, including delays in social-emotional competence for Chinese young children.