Conception and Development of the Warmth/Affection Coding System (WACS): A Novel Hybrid Behavioral Observational Tool for Assessing Parent-to-Child Warmth

Abstract

A vast body of research and theory underscores the importance of parental warmth/affection (hereby ‘warmth’ and ‘warmth/affection’ are used interchangeably) as a distinct relational process that is fundamental to core developmental processes including parent-child attachment, socialization, emotion recognition and responsivity, and empathic development. The increasing focus on parental warmth as a viable transdiagnostic and specific treatment target for Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits highlights the critical need for a reliable and valid tool for measuring this construct within clinical contexts. However, existing assessment methods have limitations in their ecological validity, clinical utility, and the comprehensiveness of their coverage of core warmth subcomponents. In response to this clinical and research need, the observational Warmth/Affection Coding System (WACS) was developed to comprehensively measure parent-to-child warmth/affection. This paper chronicles the conception and development of the WACS, which adopts a hybrid approach of utilizing both microsocial and macro-observational coding methods to capture key verbal and non-verbal subcomponents of warmth that are currently underrepresented or poorly captured by existing assessment tools. Recommendations for implementation and future directions are also discussed.

Measures of empathy and compassion: A scoping review

“…For example, the newer Empathic Expressions Scale [50] recognizes that actual empathy behaviors are different from cognitive and affective aspects of empathy. In another example, increasing understanding of the role of warmth and affection as an important component of empathy has led to the development of the Warmth/Affection Coding System (WACS) [51]. That measure also includes both micro-and macro-social observations, recognizing that implicit and explicit behaviors are important for assessment.…”

The reliability and validity of the Coder Impressions Questionnaire–Kindergarten for parenting and child behaviors.

“…For example, a parent might behave differently during a task in which they are asked to follow their child’s lead in free play compared with a task in which they must support their child in picking up toys, consistent with a domain-specific approach to parenting and child socialization (Grusec & Davidov, 2010). In addition, the newly developed Warmth/Affection Coding System is a promising tool that combines both microsocial and macro-observational methods to assess parental warmth but was designed to be used alongside the Dyadic Parent–Child Interaction Coding System and may not be appropriate for independent use in nonclinical populations (Prasad et al, 2023). Although the Parenting Clinical Observation Schedule, Dyadic Parent–Child Interaction Coding System, and Warmth/Affection Coding System have demonstrated validity and reliability, they were all developed to inform the clinical assessment of parents and children.…”

Psychometric analysis of the Emotional Availability Scales

“…In general, observational instruments are-in contrast to questionnaire-based assessments (for a review see Pritchett et al, 2011)-seldom examined with respect to their psychometric foundation (Lotzin et al, 2015;Prasad et al, 2023). One reason might be that such studies require greater time and personnel investments, which frequently result in smaller sample sizes below N = 100 (Lotzin et al, 2015).…”