Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Psychometric Properties Of A Short Version Of The Maternal Behavior Q-Sort: What You Need To Know Before Analyzing The Data, Heidi N. Bailey, Rossana Bisceglia, Jacqueline Roche, Jennifer Jenkins, Greg Moran

Psychology Presentations

OVERVIEW • N =116 mother-infant dyads (2 months old) • Coders completed the MBQS-mini 2 ways—forced vs. unforced q-sort distributions—to determine whether psychometric properties differed.

SENSITIVITY SCORES: • were virtually identical:r= .99.

BEHAVIORAL DOMAINS: • Attachment related domains: esponsiveness, Non-Interference, Affective Communication. • For all 3 (but not the Teaching domain) forced and unforced were highly correlated, and high internal consistency.

CONCLUSIONS: • Results support the use of forced q-sort data, but show no benefits associated with using forced over unforced distributions. Internal consistency was higher for the unforced teaching domain.

Maternal Sensitivity: From Child To The Neighborhood, Rossana Bisceglia, Heidi N. Bailey, Jennifer Jenkins, Greg Moran

Psychology Presentations

The purpose of this study was to explore the possible association between maternal sensitivity and distal factors such as neighborhood quality.

480 mother-child dyads were videotaped during a naturalistic interaction. Maternal sensitivity was assessed from video-tapes using the Maternal Behavior Q-sort (MBQS; Pederson & Moran, 1995).

Results of a hierarchical regression showed that maternal sensitivity was associated with: child characteristics (e.g. infant weight), maternal characteristics (e.g. age and depression) and family attributes (e.g. household income).

Interviewers’ ratings of neighborhood challenge and mothers’ report of neighborhood quality were found to significantly relate to maternal sensitivity and explained additional variance.

Results indicate …