Background

Parental responsiveness is of great importance for positive effects of behavioral and cognitive development in preterm infants and the Emotional availability scales (EAS) is a clinically relevant assessment measure, for early neurodevelopment. The EAS is an observational measure which reflects the quality of parent–child relationship and the child’s socio-emotional development. It has 4 adult domains (sensitivity, structuring, non-intrusiveness, non-hostility) and 2 child domains (responsiveness, involvement) (Biringen 2014). In an ongoing RCT of an intervention for extremely preterm (EPT) born infants and their parents, the Stockholm Preterm Interaction-Based Intervention (SPIBI), the primary outcome measure is EAS used at 12 months corrected age (CA). The aim for this sub-study is to evaluate the inter-rater reliability of EAS in this cohort.

Method

During the first year after discharge, ten home visits were carried out from specially educated interventionists of our multidisciplinary team. 130 EPT infants were recruited and 115 have been filmed and assessed at 12 months CA. The parent was instructed to play with the infant for 10 minutes. Dyads were filmed, videos assessed and scored by a trained EAS-accredited team member. 20% of the videos (23/115) were assessed by an additional EAS-accreditor to evaluate inter-rater-reliability. Interclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) were used. To obtain authenticity with real-life, the videos were filmed in a home setting with opportunity to choose study parent. Interaction were encouraged to proceed in an ordinary pattern.

Results

ICC values range 0,86 - 0,96 within all dimensions, all individual values, 95%CI (Table 1). This indicates high inter-rater reliability, although some of the subscales had lower ICC (0,73-0,98). 

Conclusion

The SPIBI study corresponds well with EAS scoring assessment method for reflection of parent-infant interaction at 12 months CA in EPT born infants.