Development of The Competence Enjoyment Scale

Abstract

Public Law 99-457 requires early interventionists to help families assess their strengths and needs for promoting their child's optimal development. The Competence Enjoyment Scale (CES) was developed to measure parental feelings of competence and enjoyment as they interact with their infant. The scale includes antonym pairs which are semantically linked to the constructs competence and enjoyment. A six-member international panel of experts in child development assisted in the development of the scale. Subjects were the biological mothers of 60 infants who were 3-5 months old (adjusted age). Preliminary results support the reliability and validity of the scale. The CES requires minimal time and effort for response and scoring. The scale allows parents and early interventionists to consider parental feelings of competence and enjoyment when setting priorities for early intervention. The CES was developed to fill a void in attitude assessment methodology and can be used to quantify parental feelings of competence and enjoyment for educational, clinical, and empirical purposes. Intuitive appeal and theoretical evidence suggest a causal relationship between parental attitudes and (a) the influence of belief systems on behavior, (b) infant-parent interactive behavior, and (c) child developmental status (