Human and Social Development

THE AFRICAN EARLY CHILD DEVELOPMENT MEASURES RESOURCE

Introduction

This inventory of child development measures for researchers in Africa is a work in progress. We hope it will remain the subject of commentary, criticism and revision until the ideas have been discussed and the measures tested in different African contexts, and we start to have a working understanding of the tools of our trade.

An important consideration throughout the initial stages of this project has been to make it accessible to researchers throughout Africa, so that the project can benefit from their experience and perceptions. Child development researchers in Africa work in diverse contexts. Through dialogue, we hope to make it easier for us all to conduct sensitive assessments of child well-being and psychosocial development and stimulate more searching enquiries into the issues.

The handbook 

The basic document is an annotated resource of measures that focuses on the psychosocial development of young children (0 - 9 years) in Africa. It is intended as a handbook to assist researchers working in Africa with the measurement of developmental phenomena during early childhood. As such, it includes general information about the relevant measures, detail about their use in an African context, such as:

The information provided in the resource is bibliographical. We have not set out to evaluate or review the indexed measures and psychometric literature, or to provide a comprehensive statement of testing in diverse cultural contexts. Consequently we take it is as given that the readers will themselves consider the indexed literature against known qualities for sound measurement. For example, that a measure of child psychosocial functioning should:

Researchers working in African face a unique set of challenges in understanding developmental phenomena. While, the international child development literature is theoretically and empirically rich as a source of inspiration in child development research, for the most part the basic research questions were conceived in the developed world. Not only must we therefore contend with a different suite of complexly interrelated and heterogeneous factors seriously affecting child development, but we also have very few psychometrically sound measures for conducting scientific research in an African context.

The need to develop measures 

Although there are a small number of locally developed measures available to researchers in African countries, for the most part a widespread lack of technical expertise and resources has meant that the psychometric properties of these measures have not been adequately established. Similarly, validation studies that should accompany the use of Western measures with African children have in most cases not been carried out. Nor do we have developmental norms for many different African populations.

Nonetheless child development measures are being used in educational, clinical and research settings, in many cases justified only by anecdotal accounts of a measure’s utility and validity with a specific population. While filling a pragmatic function, this informal use of measures has the effect of limiting replication and the critical analysis needed to deepen our understanding of complex phenomena. This is unfortunate when there is urgent need from researchers and interventionists for a more rigorous understanding of developmental issues relevant to African children.

As researchers working in diverse eco-cultural contexts we are especially mindful of the fact that expectations of children’s behaviour and development vary across class and culture, particularly in developing societies. Harkness and Super’s theoretical framework (Harkness & Super, 1994) of the developmental niche emphasises the role of culture and context in re-enforcing certain developmental pathways. In this way, living conditions and family arrangements influence the ways in which children are raised, and the values that a society places on such qualities in a child as obedience and respect (Ogunnaike, 2002).

This should have consequences for the ways in which social development measures are constructed. ‘Risk’ has different meanings in different cultural groups (Liddell, 2002) as does ‘optimal development’ (Okagaki & Sternberg, 1991).

In formulating indicators of optimal development for African children, Ogbu’s work reminds us to avoid simplistic definitions reflective of only one cultural ideal. Ogbu, in his ethnographic accounts of the language development of African American children (Ogbu, 1995) showed how conventional research practice using white middle-class standards was not useful in understanding language competencies in minority groups in the United States. The same might be said of uncritically using measures in Africa which have been forged in very different conditions and to address different concerns.

Identifying the factors 

In addition to differences in sociocultural expectations and practices, we need to identify the factors affecting children that differ from those in developed countries in importance and impact. Probably the most noticeable of these are health and nutrition: macro- and micro-nutrient deficiencies, chronic parasitic infections and frequent episodes of respiratory and diarrhoeal infections Apart from causing pain and discomfort, these factors impact on the socio-emotional and cognitive development of children in ways that are not fully understood. Compared with adults, children are especially vulnerable to these conditions, both because they are immunologically immature and also have energy needs for growth. Furthermore, the impact of HIV/AIDS has caused disruption to social and family life throughout Africa on an unprecedented scale. Grappling with these factors and the complex manner in which they interact to affect developmental pathways, requires focused empirical research built on methodologically strong science.

Even a cursory examination of the differences between the child development contexts in developed and developing countries suggests that researchers in Africa should be involved in dialogues and debates with other researchers on the continent over the most appropriate constructs and measures. The hardship and distress suffered by children in many parts of Africa is more intense and long-lasting than that encountered in developed countries. However, research into children’s pain and distress carries with it the corollary that someone is to blame. This may have pragmatic value, particularly in cases of abuse and deliberate exploitation of children.

In the context of many homes and families in desperate circumstances in Africa, children’s well-being is disregarded through a lack of resources or through a poor understanding of how to proceed. Child development research will cease to be effective in pointing the way for improvement if parents and caregivers feel threatened and blamed when they are doing the best they can under the circumstances. One approach is to have caregivers participate in the process and see the benefit.

An important function of child development measures in Africa is to involve those closest to the child (parents, caregivers, community health and early education practitioners) in monitoring their development so that adjustments to the care-giving process can be made in the home, or advice sought from outside agencies where necessary. The most widely used of these parent participation measures is growth monitoring, a particularly important monitoring process in homes where food is scarce or the nutritional content of the food could be improved. Parent ratings of motor, language, social and emotional development have been utilised to good effect for research purposes both in South Africa and Tanzania (Stoltzfus, Kvalsvig, Chwaya, Montresor et al., 2001; Faber, Phungula, Kvalsvig & Benade, 2005; Kvalsvig, Taylor, Jinabhai & Coovadia, 2004). Despite the obvious difficulties when parents/caregivers over- or under-represent children’s capabilities, there are good reasons to develop these tools further.

An important function of household indicators is to put caregivers in a position to play a more active part in promoting the development of their children in areas where professional help is distant. In addition, given the importance of both the social and physical environment we are obliged not only to include measures of child psychosocial development but also those that enable researchers to investigate the developmental niche of the child. To this end we need to investigate the validity of measures of the home environment as well as those focused on the caregiver.

This may involve the investigation of traditional measures and of measures that make use of naturalistic observation, to provide advantages that may be particularly suited to research in an African context. For example, unlike traditional off-the-shelf tests observational measures provide a means for the creative development of new research tools that are data-driven and sensitive to eco-cultural contingencies. Similarly many intelligence/abilities tests do not measure specific functional domains or intra-family process variables, and thus do not allow for the investigation of putative biological and behavioural mechanisms that may interest researchers.

Unlike our colleagues in the developed world who have the advantage of accumulating knowledge and developing measures through extensive networks, we often find ourselves conducting research with limited skills and resources, few opportunities for collaboration and limited African empirical literature. Frequently we lack validation studies. This limits the scope for replication and accumulating expertise, and undermines the scientific quality of our research outputs.

This is the start of an expanding electronic and print resource that may begin to address some of these challenges. In the short term, it will assist researchers and research students working in African contexts with the selection of appropriate and sound measures. In the long term, it will assist through co-operation between researchers, by improving knowledge and availability of instruments.

When it comes to developing and adapting tests for cross-cultural use, readers are referred to the International Test Commission’s Guidelines for Adapting Educational Tests (Hambleton, 1994, 2001). These guidelines will soon be updated. Details regarding the updated version can be found at:  www.intestcom.org.

References:

Faber, M., Phungula, M. A. S., Kvalsvig, J. D., & Benade, A. J. S. (2003). Acceptability of community-based growth monitoring in a rural village in South Africa. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 24, 350-359.

Hambleton, R. K. (1994). Guidelines for adapting educational and psychological tests: a progress report. Bulletin of the International Test Commission in the European Journal for Psychological Assessment, 10 (3), 229–244.

Hambleton, R. K. (2001). The next generation of ITC test translation and adaptation guidelines. European Journal for Psychological Assessment, 17, 164-172.

Kvalsvig, J. D., Taylor, M., Jinabhai, C. C., & Coovadia, H. M. (2004). Colloquium report: Improving the health of school age children in an era of HIV/AIDS in Durban, South Africa. Journal of Tropical Pediatrics, 50(4), 251-254.

Ogbu, J.U. (1995). Understanding cultural diversity and learning. In James A. Banks and Cherry A. McGee Banks' (Eds.), Handbook of research on multicultural education (Chapter 32, pp. 582-593).  New York:  Macmillan.

Ogunnaike, O. A. (2002). Yoruba toddlers' engagement in errands and cognitive performance on the Yoruba Mental Subscale. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 26, 145-153.

Okagaki, L., & Sternberg, R. J. (1991). Cultural and parental influences on cognitive development. In L. Okagaki & R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), Directors of development: Influences on the development of children’s thinking. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Stoltzfus, R. J., Kvalsvig J. D., Chwaya H. M., Montresor, A., Albonico, M., Tielsch, J. M., Savioli, L., & Pollitt, E. (2001). Effects of iron supplementation and anthelminthic treatment on motor and language development of Zanzibar preschool children: Double blind, placebo-controlled study. British Medical Journal, 323, 1389-1393.

Super, C. M., & Harkness, S. (1994). Temperament and the developmental niche. In W. B. Carey & S. McDevitt (Eds.), Prevention and intervention: Individual differences as risk factors for the mental health of children. A festschrift for Stella Chess and Alexander Thomas. New York: Bruner/Mazel.