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Development and Initial Validation of the Child Routines Inventory

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Abstract

The importance of establishing predictable routines during childhood consistently has been emphasized in the popular parenting literature, despite a paucity of empirical evidence. The lack of research may be partially due to a lack of suitable instruments designed to measure children's routines. This study describes development and preliminary psychometric data in support of the Child Routines Inventory (CRI), an empirically derived, content-valid, parent-report measure of commonly occurring routines in school-aged children. Principal components analysis yielded a four-factor structure (composed of 36 items), accounting for 44.2% of the total variance. The CRI was found to have excellent internal consistency (α = .90), good test-retest reliability (r = .86), and preliminary evidence of construct validity, demonstrating a moderate relationship with measures of child behavior problems and family routines. These results suggest the CRI to be a promising new measure of child routines that would benefit from further validation studies.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

    Sara E. Sytsma, Mary L. Kelley & Joy H. Wymer

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  1. Sara E. Sytsma
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  2. Mary L. Kelley
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Sytsma, S.E., Kelley, M.L. & Wymer, J.H. Development and Initial Validation of the Child Routines Inventory. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment 23, 241–251 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012727419873

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