Item Analysis, Age Trends, and Internal Consistency Reliability of the Children's Occupational Performance...

Occupational performance measures are essential for guiding client-centered interventions for children and for measuring progress and program outcomes.

To evaluate and report on the psychometric properties of a new assessment tool, the Children's Occupational Performance Questionnaire (COPQ).

Descriptive and correlational methods were used.

A convenience sample primarily from the northeastern United States was recruited, consisting of the caregivers of 156 children and 25 older children who completed the COPQ as a self-report. Participants' ages ranged from 2 mo to 19 yr. Seventy-five percent of them identified as typically developing, and 25% had a medical condition or disability affecting development.

Data from completed questionnaires assessing children with and without disabilities were used to explore aspects of the COPQ's content validity, including age trends and item difficulty. Internal consistency reliability was also examined for each of the five domains: Personal Activities of Daily Living, Instrumental Activities of Daily Living, Social Participation, Play/Leisure, and Education/Work.

Each COPQ domain showed strong internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's α = .96-.99). Age trends indicated increasing competency in occupational performance with age across domains and supported occupational performance as a developmental construct.

The COPQ shows promise as a reliable occupational performance measure for children for both clinical and research purposes. Potential items for modification or deletion were identified to reduce redundancy and increase efficiency. Further study of the tool's psychometrics and normative data collection are needed.

The COPQ addresses all areas of occupational performance and is being developed as a valid, reliable assessment tool for children. It aims to assist in guiding occupational therapy interventions and detecting changes in occupational performance in response to treatment.