Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment - Parent Form ( BITSEA - PARENT FORM )

Overview
Training
Psychometrics
Pros & Cons
Author Comments

Overview

Acronym:

BITSEA-PARENT

Author(s):

Briggs-Gowan, Margaret & Carter, Alice S.

Author Contact:

Alice S. Carter, Ph.D. Department of Psychology University of Massachusetts Boston 100 Morrissey Blvd. Boston, MA 02125

Citation:

Carter, A.S., & Briggs-Gowan, M. (2005). ITSEA BITSEA: The Infant-Toddler and Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment. PsychCorp: San Antonio, TX.

To Obtain:

Harcourt Assessment, Inc. 19500 Bulverde Road San Antonio, Texas 78259 Phone: 1-800-211-8378 Fax: 1-800-232-1223

Email:

Margaret.Briggs-Gowan@yale.edu

Email:

Alice.Carter@umb.edu

WebSite:

www.harcourtassessment.com

Cost:

$1.40

Yes

Description:

The BITSEA is a brief screener of children's social or emotional behavior problems and competencies based on the Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (ITSEA). As with the ITSEA, it was designed to identify children with deficits or delays in these areas, with positive screens to be followed by administration of the full ITSEA. The measure yields a Problem Total Score and a Competence Total Score. There are two versions, a Parent Form and a Childcare Provider Form, both are reviewed in this database.

Theoretical Orientation Summary:

ITSEA and BITSEA items were based on reviews of the developmental and psychopathology literature, including reviews of DSM-IV-TR and Diagnostic Classification: 0-3 diagnoses to identify problems and symptoms relevant to infants and toddlers.

Domains Assessed:

Competence (child)

General symptomatology (child)

Languages:

Chinese

Dutch

English (USA)

French

German

Hebrew

Italian

Russian

Spanish

Thai

Age Range:

1-3 Years

Measure Type:

Screening

Number of Items:

Measure Format:

Questionnaire

Time to Complete:

Reporter:

Parent/Caregiver

Score Time:

Education Level:

Periodicity:

Last Month

Response Format:

3-point scale: 0=Not true/rarely, 1=Somewhat true/sometimes, and 2=Very true/often. A No Opportunity code allows raters to indicate they have not had the opportunity to observe the behavior.

Materials Needed:

Paper and pencil Testing stimuli (e.g. pictures, testing kit)

Materials Notes:

The following items are available from the website as of 8/05:1. BITSEA Kit: $99 (includes Manual, 25 Parent Forms, 25 Child Care Provider Forms) 2. ITSEA/BITSEA Comprehensive Kit: $250 (includes Manual 10 ITSEA Parent Forms, 10 ITSEA Child Care Provider Forms, 10 BITSEA Parent Forms, 10 BITSEA Child Care Provider Forms)3. Computer scoring assistant (CD-ROM): $75 (optional)4. BITSEA Parent Forms (pkg/25): $35 (Pricing is based on the purchase of this item.)5. BITSEA Parent Forms in Spanish (pkg/25): $356. BITSEA Child Care Provider Forms (pkg/25): $35

Information Provided:

Areas of concern/risks

Continuous assessment

Raw Scores

Strengths

Training

Training to Administrator:

Training by experienced clinician (<4 hours)

Training to Interpret:

Not Available

Training Notes:

The manual suggests that "the ITSEA and BITSEA are designed for use by qualified professionals who have formal training in the use and interpretation of standardized assessment tools and who have received supervised developmental and mental health training specific to working with parents and young children: psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health care providers, early interventionists, social workers, pediatricians, nurse practitioners, or trained pediatric or school staff members" (Carter & Briggs-Gowan, 2005, p. 4). They also suggested that while a nonqualified professional may aid in administration, only a qualified professional with training in young children's mental health should interpret the results.

Psychometrics

Global Rating:

Under construction, psychometric evaluation is underway

Norms:

None

Psychometric Norm Notes:

There are no norms, but the manual provides means and standard deviations by gender and age (12-17 months, 18-23 months, 24-29 months, 30-35 months) for preliminary comparison purposes.

Clinical Cutoffs:

PROBLEM SCORES: Cut scores = >75 percentile COMPETENCE SCORES: Cut scores = <15%

Pros & Cons

Pros:

1. The items appear clear and easy to understand. 2. The measure was developed specifically to assess infants and toddlers, and includes items that are developmentally sensitive and relevant to young children. 3. Assesses competencies as well as problem behaviors. 4. The measure appears to be a good screener in that scores are highly correlated with both the full ITSEA and the CBCL. 5. The measure is brief and can be administered in 6 minutes. 6. There is a Childcare Provider version with identical items and scales to allow for comparisons between reporters.

Cons:

1. The age range of the measure 1-3 is awkward for treatment-outcome research and longitudinal studies because children need to fall in that age range at pre-, post-, and follow-up assessment periods. 2. There are no norms. 3. The measure consists of 42 items, but it yields scores on only two scales. This limits the utility of this measure. The authors suggest that positive screens on the BITSEA be followed by the ITSEA. 4. With regard to using the measure for trauma-exposed children, there is no scale that directly measures trauma symptoms, so another measure would need to be used to capture trauma symptomatology. 5. As with most Parent Report measures, items are face valid and parent may respond defensively or in biased ways. There are no validity scales associated with this measure.

Author Comments

Author Comments:

None

Citation for Review:

Chandra Ghosh Ippen, Ph.D.

Editor of Review:

Chandra Ghosh Ippen, Ph.D.

Last Updated:

Thu, 08/04/2005

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