Content Validity and Preliminary Structural Validity of the Sensory Integration Infant Routines Questionnaire

ABSTRACT

This study examined the content validity and preliminary structural validity of the Sensory Integration Infant Routines Questionnaire (SIIRQ), a tool designed to screen for behaviors reflecting possible sensory integration concerns in children aged between 8 and 24 months. This study included two main phases. In phase 1, we examined content validity through cognitive interviews with experts and caregivers. In phase 2, we explored preliminary structural validity through item discrimination, analyzing the dispersion of responses within the 4-point Likert scale. Preliminary internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha was also explored. Experts demonstrated a high degree of agreement, and their input was useful in establishing items to help identify sensory integration vulnerabilities within daily routines. Caregivers unanimously reported that the instrument and the instructions were easy-to-understand. The questionnaire item responses demonstrated good dispersion and appear to capture behaviors that are consistent with sensory integration concerns in daily routines. The homogeneity of the items within each dimension (Cronbach’s alpha) ranged from 0.60 to 0.87. The final version of the questionnaire includes 102 items aimed at detecting sensory integration vulnerabilities within the child’s daily routines, in accordance with currently accepted models of early intervention.

KEYWORDS:

• Activities of daily living
• infants
• routines
• sensory integration
• sensory integration concerns
• validation of assessment instruments

Acknowledgements

Also, we wish to express our gratitude to the parents who kindly took the time to answer the questionnaires. We extend our gratitude to the experts who kindly took the time to review the Sensory Integration Infant Routines Questionnaire.

Author contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contributions to the work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by Portuguese national funds through the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) within the framework of the CIEC (Research Center for Child Studies of the University of Minho) projects under the references UIDB/00317/2020 and UIDP/00317/2020. Cátia Lucas also thanks FCT for the PhD scholarship [BD.2020.07797].