Human and Social Development

THE AFRICAN EARLY CHILD DEVELOPMENT MEASURES RESOURCE

ECD background

What this is

• An up-to-date resource database for African researchers working in early childhood psychological development.
• It provides a summary of the latest psychological measures to assess psychological functioning in young children (0-9 years) on the continent.
• It includes both general and detailed information about the measures and their use in Africa (based on the English language literature).

Background

Researchers working in Africa face particular challenges regarding the measurement of psychological capacities of children, for example, the range of cultural and linguistic environments, for which there are few culturally appropriate measures to use in our scientific research.

For the most part, psychological measures have been developed outside this continent, and while reliable and valid in their countries of origin, they may not transport well to very different cultural and linguistic settings. This limits attempts to understand and address issues relevant to the development of African children. This resource grew out of an awareness of these challenges.

How the resource works

• Where available, information is provided from African standardisation and validation studies, as well as from research that has used these measures.
• It is searchable and provides the option to comment on particular measures.
• The information is organised into several levels for each measure, providing information such as the nature and administration of the measure, its psychometric features (standardisation; reliability and validity), where this information is available, as well as notes on African psychometric data and research studies.

Authors

• Mr Andrew Dellis, Child Youth, Family and Social Development, Human Sciences Research Council
• Dr. Jane Kvalsvig, Community Health, Medical School Campus, University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban
• Associate Professor Andy Dawes, now retired but formerly of the Child Youth, Family and Social Development programme, HSRC and Psychology Department, University of Cape Town

Word of thanks

• The development of this resource was funded by the HSRC's Parliamentary grant and involved close collaboration with scholars in the HSRC and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
• We are most grateful for contributions from development professionals and interested parties throughout Africa.
• The authors are grateful for most helpful commentrary and reviews provided by Professors Linda Richter and Cheryl Foxcroft.