1 Survey

Appendix A A.3.5–1

Three Bags Task/Parent–Child Observation

The Three Bags Task is a semi-structured activity completed by the parent and child in interaction. The task involves video-recording a semi-structured play session that then can be coded by trained coders to explore parental, child, and dyadic behaviors and emotions.

Administration Time:

15 minutes of interaction, plus 5 minutes of video equipment setup and removal

Administration Method:

Videotaped observation of parent–child interaction

Administration Procedures:

During this 15-minute task, the parent is asked to play with his or her child as they normally would but to make use of all three of the toys provided to them. The toys can each be placed within a separate box and presented to the parent. The dyad is told that they have 15 minutes to play with the toys, the only restriction being that they have to play with all the toys. The parent and child are videotaped while they engaged in the play activities. The videotapes then are reviewed and coded by individuals who have been trained in the associated coding system.

Coding: (to be done later by trained coders, no additional burden on participant)

The rating scales of parent behavior assess such characteristics as:

Parental Sensitivity: how the parent observes and responds to the child’s cues (including gestures, expressions, and signals). The key defining characteristic of parental sensitivity is that the parent’s response is child-centered and involves “tuning-in” to the child and manifesting awareness of the child’s needs, moods, interests and capabilities.

Parental Intrusiveness: the degree to which the parent controls the child and engages in adult-centered behavior.

Cognitive Stimulation: the parent’s efforts to enhance the child’s perceptual, cognitive, and language development.

Parental Positive Regard: the parent’s expression of love, respect, and admiration for the child. Parental Negative Regard: the parent’s expression of discontent with, anger toward, disapproval of, or rejection of the child.

Parental Detachment: the parent’s awareness of, attention to, and engagement with the child.

Child Engagement of Parent: the extent to which the child shows, initiates, and maintains interaction with the parent.

Sustained Attention: the child’s ability to sustain attention to and involvement with objects.

Child Negativity toward Parent: the degree to which the child shows anger, hostility, or dislike toward the parent.

Risks and Protection Against Risks:

This videotaped interaction asks parents to play with their infants as they normally would, while making use of all of the toys provided to them. Consequently, the play activities are considered minimal risk. The session will be video-recorded. To protect participants’ identities videos will not contain participants’ names, only participant identification numbers. The videos will be treated as sensitive data and only accessible to investigators who have applied for and been granted approval, who have signed a data use agreement for video data that describes restrictions on handling of the video data, and who have passed a security training.