| | Assessment and scoring scales | Description | Reference | Studies |
| | Global scales | | | Global rating scales (GRS) | Assessment of the quality of mother-infant interaction. Maternal behavior is rated on 4 dimensions: sensitivity, intrusiveness, remoteness, and signs of depression. Infant behavior is rated on 3 dimensions: communicative, inert, and distressed. One dimension assesses the quality of the overall interaction between mother and infant. A 5-point Likert-type scale is used to rate each dimension, with 1 being the poorest and 5 being the optimal rating. | Gunning et al.
Murray et al. [15, 73] | Agostini et al. [67];
Neri et al. [69] | | NCAST Feeding (NCAFS) and Teaching (NCAST) PCI Scales | The NCAST-PCI evaluates 149 items related to maternal and infant behaviors. It comprises two scales: NCAFS and NCATS. Infant and parent items are coded as yes or no; items are then added to provide a total score. Each scale includes 4 subscales, measuring maternal behaviors and 2 subscales, measuring infant’s behaviors.
Maternal subscales are sensitivity to cues, responsivity to child’s distress, social-emotional growth fostering, and cognitive growth fostering. Infant subscales are clarity of cues and responsiveness to parent. | Barnard et al. [47] | Davis et al. [53]
Farel et al. [46] | | Coding Interactive Behavior (CIB) | Global rating system of parent-child interaction in different play or interaction situations, including 42 codes: 21 for parents, 16 for infants, and 5 for dyads. Each score is rated with a Likert-type scale, where 1 corresponds to the poorest and 5 to the optimal rating.
Five composite scales are included: maternal sensitivity, maternal intrusiveness, child’s social involvement, and dyadic reciprocity. | Feldman [63] | Feldman and Eidelman [62];
Feldman [64] | | Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment (PC-ERA) | Semistructured assessment to evaluate affective and behavioral quality of parent–infant interaction during 4 situations: feeding, administration of a structured task, free play, and a separation-reunion task. Three parental subscales (29 items) are coded: positive affective involvement and verbalization, negative affect and behaviors, and intrusiveness, insensitivity, and inconsistency. Three Infant subscales (28 items) are coded: positive affect, social and communicative competence; quality of play, interest and attentional skills; dysregulation and irritability. Two dyadic subscales (8 items) are coded: mutual enjoyment and reciprocity, tension and disorganization. A 5-point Likert-type scale is used to rate each item. | Clark [66] | Korja et al. [65] | | CARE-Index | Assessment of the quality of adult-infant interaction. Three adult behaviors are scored: sensitivity, control, and unresponsiveness.
Four infant behaviors are scored: cooperativeness, compulsiveness, difficultness, and passivity. The scores range from 0 to 14, with 0 score being the worst score. | http://www.patcrittenden.com,
Crittenden 1979-2004 [57] | Muller-nix et al. [55] | | HOME | Inventory designed to identify the presence of risk for developmental delay due to lacking of appropriate quantity and quality of stimulation from home environment. Forty-five binary items, organized in six subscales, are scored using a combination of semistructured mother interview relative to children routine activities, observation of mother-infant interaction during play and interview and assessment of kinds of play materials available to the child. Six subscales are coded: emotional and verbal maternal responsivity, maternal avoidance of restriction and punishment, maternal involvement with the child, organization of the environment, provision of appropriate play materials, and variety in daily stimulation. | Bradley and Cadwell [48] | Farel et al., [46] | | Microanalytic | | | Coding system of Minde (1980) | Microanalytic system recording the occurrence of the 10 maternal and 11 infant behaviors. Infant behaviors: arm, head, leg, hand to mouth; eyes open; scan; grimace; cry; vocalize; smile; yawn.
Maternal behaviors: look; look en face; verbalize to baby and to others; instrumental and noninstrumental touch; hold; feed; smile; standing further than 1 meter away from the baby. | Minde et al. [43] | Minde et al. [42] | Microanalytic coding system to rate early mother–child
Interaction by Jorg (1994) | Microanalytic system which rates interactive behaviors at fixed time intervals of 1, 15, and 30 seconds. In particular, maternal behaviors rated per second are direction of gaze, vocalization, facial expression, content of interaction, and proximity; infant behaviors rated per second are direction of gaze, vocalization, and facial expression; joint mother-child behaviors rated every 15-30 seconds are appropriateness of stimulation, maternal responsiveness, and child responsiveness. | Jorg et al. [59] | Schmücker et al. [58] | | Coding system of Landry (1986) | This coding system is based on the recording of the occurrence of mothers’ attention-directing strategies and infants’ responses.
The variables scored are maternal attention-directing attempt, verbal technique-question, verbal technique-imperative, verbal technique-attention verbs, nonverbal techniques attention directing-gesture, nonverbal techniques attention directing-demonstrate, nonverbal techniques attention directing-give, initial focus of attention-maintain, initial focus of attention-introducing, initial focus of attention-redirecting, infant response-no response, infant response-look, infant response-manipulate. | Landry [45] | Landry [45];
Landry [49] | | Monadic Phase Manual | Coding system in which the stream of affective behavior of each partner is coded using 6 expressive modalities for the parent, which are vocalization, direction of gaze, head orientation, facial expression, body position, and specific handling of the infant and 5 for the infant which are vocalization, direction of gaze, head orientation, and facial expression.
Combination of expressive modalities, checked second by second, is transformed in one of the following seven adult monadic phases: avoid, avert, monitor, elicit, set, play, and talk. Six infant monadic phases are also coded: avoid, avert, monitor, set, play, and talk. | Tronick et al. [61]
Feldman [74] | Feldman [60] | | Revised relational coding system (R-RCS) | This coding scale assesses dyadic coregulation based on 5 patterns: symmetrical, asymmetrical, unilateral, disruptive, and unengaged. One additional pattern, no code, can be used for missing information. | Fogel et al. [71] | Sansavini [70] | | Lunknenheimer’s coding system | This scale codes parent and infant positive and negative affective intensity in 30 s intervals. An ordinal 3-point scale (non, low, high) is used to code affective behaviors based on a combination of voice tone, facial expression, eye contact, and body language. | Lunknenheimer et al. [71] | Sansavini [70] | | Checklist | | | Checklist by Lewis | Checklist sheet for recoding 13 infant and 12 maternal behaviors. Behavior are coded within 10-second periods: occurrence, initiation, or response. Two principal types of summary variables are computed from discrete infant and maternal behaviors: general behavior and responsivity.
Maternal general behaviors: frequency of general stimulation; frequency of proximal stimulation, frequency of distal stimulation, frequency of kinesthetic stimulation, frequency of positive affect expression, and frequency of vocal stimulation. Infant general behaviors: frequency of fret/cry, frequency of vocalization, and frequency of look/gaze at mother.
Maternal responsivity: proportion of general responsivity, proportion of proximal responsivity, proportion of distal responsivity, and proportion of vocal responsivity. Infant responsivity: proportion of general responsivity. | Lewis et al. [40] | Greene et al. (1983) [39] | | Checklist by Lasky et al., 1984 | Observational method based on rating the presence of maternal and infant behaviors in 5 different situations. 10 behaviors initiated by the infant and 12 behaviors initiated by the mother are checked. | Lasky et al. [41] | Lasky et al. [41] | | Checklist by Bohlin et al., 1989 | Observational method based on a 5-point scale (higher score indicating higher frequency or better performance) rating of maternal, infant, and dyadic items. Maternal items are grouped into three variables: sensitivity, intrusiveness, and involvement. Infant items are grouped into two variables: infant interactive behaviors. The dyadic variable corresponds to a global evaluation of quality of positive interaction. | Bohlin et al., [52] | Schermann-Eizirik et al. [51] | | Other | | Mixed rating scale and microanalytic coding system | Five-point rating scale to code a composite measure labeled “warm sensitivity” which comprises three maternal behaviors: positive affect, warm concern/acceptance, and flexibility/responsiveness combined to a microanalytic coding scheme developed to quantify maternal attention-directing events defined as verbal and nonverbal behaviors (frequency of events is considered for analysis). | Landry et al., [45]
Smith et al., [50] | Smith et al. [50] |
|
|
