Parent-child interactive behavior in a German sample of parents with and without a mental illness: model replication and adaption of the Coding Interactive Behavior system

Julia Fahrer; Philipp Doebler; Klara Hagelweide; Pius Kern; Nora Nonnenmacher; Vanessa Seipp; Corinna Reck; Christina Schwenck; Sarah Weigelt; Anna-Lena Zietlow; Hanna Christiansen

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1266383

Parent-child interactive behavior in a German sample of parents with and without a mental illness: model replication and adaption of the Coding Interactive Behavior system

Front Psychiatry. 2024 Apr 30:15:1266383. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1266383. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Clinical Child- and Adolescent Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
² Special Needs Educational & Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Department of Psychology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Gießen, Germany.
³ Department of Statistical Methods in the Social Sciences, Technical University Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany.
⁴ Department of Vision, Visual Impairments & Blindness, Faculty of Rehabilitation Science, Technical University Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany.
⁵ Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Heidelberg University Hospital, Institute of Medical Psychology, Heidelberg, Germany.
⁶ Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University München, Munich, Germany.
⁷ Clinical Child- and Adolescent Psychology, Department of Psychology, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany.

Abstract

Studies using observational measures often fail to meet statistical standards for both reliability and validity. The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Coding Interactive Behavior (CIB) System within a German sample of parent-child dyads. The sample consisted of 149 parents with and without a mental illness and their children [n experimental group (EG) = 75, n control group (CG) = 74] who participated in the larger Children of Mentally Ill Parents at Risk Evaluation (COMPARE) study. The age of the children ranged from 3 to 12 years (M = 7.99, SD = 2.5). Exploratory factor analysis supported a five-factor model of the CIB with items describing 1) parental sensitivity/reciprocity, 2) parental intrusiveness, 3) child withdrawal, 4) child involvement, and 5) parent limit setting/child compliance. Compared to international samples, the model was reduced by two independent dyadic factors. Testing for predictive validity identified seven items with predictive power to differentiate parental group membership. The CIB factors did not seem to be sufficiently sensitive to illustrate differences in interaction within a sample of parents with various mental illnesses. To apply the CIB to the described sample or similar ones in the future, additional measurement instruments may be necessary.

Keywords: CIB; Coding Interactive Behavior; behavior observation; factor analysis; factorial structure; parent-child interaction; parents with a mental illness; psychometric properties.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The study is entirely funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (01GL1748B).