Development and assessment of short and very short forms of the infant behavior questionnaire-revised

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Child Psychology
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• The Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R) is a widely used caregiver report measure for infant temperament.
• Existing measures may be lengthy, posing challenges for certain research contexts.
• There is a need for shorter, psychometrically sound versions of the IBQ-R.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate short (91 items) and very short (37 items) forms of the IBQ-R.
• To evaluate the psychometric properties of these new forms.
• To provide recommendations for the use of different IBQ-R versions.

Main Methods:

• Development of short and very short forms using data from 761 infants across 6 samples.
• Validation of the forms using data from 1,619 participants across 11 independent samples.
• Analysis of reliability (Cronbach's alpha, inter-parent agreement, retest reliability) and validity (convergent, predictive).

Main Results:

• Over 90% of reliability and correlation coefficients exceeded .70 for the new scales.
• Inter-parent agreement and longitudinal stability were comparable to standard IBQ-R scales.
• Convergent and predictive validity were slightly lower but comparable to standard IBQ-R scales.

Conclusions:

• The short and very short forms of the IBQ-R demonstrate strong psychometric properties.
• These new forms offer efficient and reliable alternatives for infant temperament assessment.
• The study provides guidance on selecting the appropriate IBQ-R version based on research needs.