Construcción de una escala para evaluar tipos de elogios otorgados por cuidadores primarios a infantes de 0 a 3 años

Abstract

Los elogios son definidos como devoluciones positivas otorgadas a personas sobre sus atributos, sobre la realización de una tarea o sobre los objetos o productos realizados. Los distintos tipos de elogios que los cuidadores primarios o padres utilicen con los infantes cuando ellos realicen una actividad, impactarán en su desarrollo, en las creencias o percepción de sí mismos o de los modos de aprender, y en la motivación hacia esas tareas que la niña o el niño realice. Estos modos de elogiar no han sido estudiados en la Argentina y no existen instrumentos estandarizados psicométricos para evaluarlos. Por esto, el objetivo de este estudio fue la creación y validación de una técnica de auto-reporte para evaluar los elogios que otorgan los cuidadores a infantes de 0 a 3 años. Los participantes que conformaron la muestra (N = 128) fueron reclutados por medio de internet y completaron un cuestionario de escala Likert de aproximadamente cinco minutos de duración. A partir del análisis factorial exploratorio, se ajustó la técnica y se agruparon las preguntas del cuestionario en tres dimensiones, elogios de persona, proceso y producto. Esto permitiría hacer una evaluación breve y sencilla de los elogios utilizados, lo que en un futuro aportaría a intervenciones o estudios que pretendan favorecer elogios que beneficien un desarrollo adaptativo de los infantes. Sin embargo, aún es necesario un futuro estudio que indague cambios en la técnica con un mayor tamaño muestral para la realización de una validación más exhaustiva.

Praise is defined as positive feedback given to people about their attributes, their performance, the objects or products made by them. The different types of praise that primary caregivers or parents use with infants when they carry out an activity will impact on their development, beliefs or perception of themselves or types of learning, and motivation toward the tasks that the children perform. One type of praise is the praise directed towards an individual, which compliments their own attributes such as her intelligence. Another one is the product praise, which is directed towards the final objects or actions that the infant performs, such as a drawing or physical activities. Finally, a praise directed at the process aims to congratulate the infant during the task as a process, either for making an effort or for the strategies that they use to achieve something. This last kind of praise favors perseverance in the face of new tasks to a greater extent, while praise directed at the person could generate more frustration when the infant experiences failure. Therefore, the way caregivers interact with infants is relevant, since it modulates motivation and the development of different skills. For this reason, the main objective of this study was the creation and validation of a self-report technique to assess the praise that Argentinean caregivers give to infants from 0 to 3 years of age. The sample was made up of 128 primary caregivers (N = 128) who were recruited through the internet. They completed a Likert scale questionnaire of approximately 5 minutes of duration. The data was collected during preventive social isolation due to COVID-19. This could lead to changes in parental behavior, while it also provides ecological value for understanding the ways to praise in this context, where caregivers spend a lot of time with infants; however, it would be important to conduct future research outside of this context. An exploratory factor analysis was performed, which led to an adjustment in the technique by eliminating four items in order to improve the psychometric characteristics of the instrument. By this analysis, the formation of the three dimensions was justified by the types of praise: person, process, and product praise.The final instrument consisted of 13 phrases that represent possible compliments used by caregivers. Participants indicated how often they usually use those compliments on a scale from 1 (never) to 5 (very often). The items are divided by types of praise: six were assigned to the product dimension, three to the process dimension and four to the person dimension. The internal consistencies of the dimensions were process (α = .91), product (α = .74) and person (α = .73). This self-report technique for primary caregivers of infants would allow a short and simple evaluation of the praise used. In future research, this technique would allow an assessment of praise for the realization of studies that seek to expand the knowledge about how they affect child development. Likewise, it would contribute to the development of interventions with caregivers aimed to promote praise that benefits an adaptive development of infants. However, more studies are needed to investigate possible changes in the inventory, such as the inclusion of neutral praise or negative feedback. Furthermore, a larger sample size would be necessary to carry out a more exhaustive validation, performing a confirmatory factor analysis, convergent variance and factor invariance.