Outcome Measures for IECMHC

States, tribes, and communities are building the evidence that IECMHC works in early care and education. A common question is which tools to use to measure impact.

Use this Choose and Use tool to plan how you'll measure IECMHC outcomes. It summarizes 22 measures used in two or more IECMHC program evaluations, covering impact on children, teachers, teacher-child relationships, and classrooms or programs.

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Teacher-Child · Measure

Arnett Caregiver Interaction Scale (CIS)

Trained observer/trained raterPublic domainDetailsClose

Level: Teacher-Child Relationship
Type of Tool: Measure
Construct: Caregiver-child relationship
Respondent: Trained observer/trained rater
Language(s): English
Length: Approximately 2 hours
Description: Observer-rated measure of caregiver’s behavior in interactions with children, capturing both positive and negative facets, with separate versions based on child age
Subscales: Sensitivity, Harshness, Detachment, and Permissiveness.
Published Psychometrics?: Yes See for example: Colwell, N., Gordon, R. A., Fujimoto, K., Kaestner, R., & Korenman, S. (2013). New evidence on the validity of the Arnett Caregiver Interaction Scale: Results from the early childhood longitudinal study-birth cohort. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 28(2), 218-233.
Citation for Tool: Arnett, J. (1989). Caregivers in day-care centers: Does training matter? Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. 10(4):541–552. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0193-3973(89)90026-9.
In the Public Domain?: Yes - Available freely online on the University of Virginia Curry School of Education and Human Development website

Disclaimers

Don't limit your data collection to these measures. They are outcome measures: they show how IECMHC affects children, classrooms, and programs. Also collect implementation data (how IECMHC is delivered) and process data (the near-term changes that lead to those outcomes).

Many families who use IECMHC face wide racial and ethnic disparities in access to opportunity. Programs and systems leaders should always collect demographic data, and always break down outcome, process, and implementation data by race/ethnicity, income, language, and disability status.

Make evaluation decisions in light of your program's theory of change, setting, and the people you serve. Where you can, choose measures normed on the populations you serve and available in a language families understand.

In addition to using the Choose and Use Guide, we recommend you also contact the CoE to request technical assistance to refine your decisions about which tools to select.

Need help choosing?

Request technical assistance from the Center of Excellence to help you decide which tools to use.

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