We are excited to share new research that supports the 'utility of the Relationship Development Assessment - Research Version for clinical practice'. This was first published in the Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry in December 2013 and a full pdf version is available from SAGE.
ABSTRACT
The aim of this project was to replicate
and extend findings from two recent studies on parent-child relatedness
in autism (Beurkens, Hobson, & Hobson, 2013; Hobson, Tarver,
Beurkens, & Hobson, 2013, under review) by adapting an observational
assessment and coding schemes of parent-child relatedness for the
clinical context and examining their validity and reliability. The
coding schemes focussed on three aspects of relatedness: joint
attentional focus (Adamson, Bakeman, & Deckner, 2004), the capacity
to co-regulate an interaction and the capacity to share emotional
experiences. The participants were 40 children (20 with autism, 20
without autism) aged 6–14, and their parents. Parent-child dyads took
part in the observational assessment and were coded on these schemes.
Comparisons were made with standardised measures of autism severity
(Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, ADOS: Lord, Rutter, DiLavore, & Risi, 2001; Social Responsiveness Scale, SRS: Constantino &
Gruber, 2005), relationship quality (Parent Child Relationship
Inventory, PCRI: Gerard, 1994) and quality of parent-child interaction
(Dyadic Coding Scales, DCS: Humber & Moss, 2005). Inter-rater
reliability was very good and, as predicted, codes both diverged from
the measure of parent-child relationship and converged with a separate
measure of parent-child interaction quality. A detailed profile review
revealed nuanced areas of group and individual differences which may be
specific to verbally-able school-age children. The results support the
utility of the Relationship Development Assessment – Research Version
for clinical practice.
Full pdf version available from SAGE