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Evaluation of a Puppet Interview to Measure Young Children's Self-Reports of Temperament

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2012

Janet H. Roth
Affiliation:
Griffith University, Australia
Mark R. Dadds*
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Australia
John McAloon
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Professor Mark R. Dadds, School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia. Email: m.dadds@unsw.edu.au
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Abstract

This study developed and evaluated a puppet interview that allows children to self-report on temperamental constructs. Structured child self-report measures are rarely utilised in clinical assessment of young children under the age of 7—8 years. Given that clinical assessment is often characterised by low convergence between raters, such a measure may offer important contributions. The present study developed and evaluated a measure based on items from the Colorado Childhood Temperament Inventory and reports two studies with child participants aged 4 to 5 years. Independent observations of the children were also made. Results showed moderate levels of internal consistency and stability, and convergence between child self-report and teacher/parent raters was low, but similar levels of agreement were achieved between adult informants. The puppet interview thus showed some potential but highlighted the difficulties of self-report in young children within a multiple informant framework in clinical assessment.

Type
Standard Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

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