‘Just Try Harder and You Will Shine’: A Study of 20 Lazy Children

The Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire in school-aged children with congenital hemiplegia: test-retest reproducibility and parent-child concordance

AIM

To examine internal consistency, test-retest reproducibility, and parent-child concordance of the Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire 17.0 (DMQ) in school-aged children with congenital hemiplegia.

METHOD

Forty-two children (8.24 ± 2.38 years, Manual Ability Classification System (MACS) I = 23, MACS II = 19) and their parents completed the DMQ, and a subset on two occasions 2-30 days apart (n = 27). Cronbach's alpha (α), intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), standard error of measurement (SEM), and 95% limits of agreement were calculated.

RESULTS

Internal consistency for child self-report was variable (α = 0.57-0.90). Cronbach's alphas for parent proxy report were good (α = 0.69-0.86). Test-retest reproducibility for instrumental aspect (ICC = 0.86) and total motivation (ICC = 0.84) were excellent with subscales ranging from 0.70 to 0.91. The SEM for total motivation was 0.23 points. Parent-child concordance was poor across all scores (ICC = -0.04 to 0.42) with a large SEM (0.50-0.91).

INTERPRETATION

The DMQ parent report has good test-retest reproducibility for subscales, instrumental, and total motivation scores in school-aged children with congenital hemiplegia. Parent-child concordance was low highlighting differences in individual and contextual perspectives.

A systematic review of clinimetric properties of measurements of motivation for children aged 5-16 years with a physical disability or motor delay

The purpose of this systematical review was to appraise the clinimetric properties of measures of motivation in children aged 5-16 years with a physical disability or motor delay. Six electronic databases were searched. Studies were included if they reported measuring motivation in school-aged children across occupational performance areas. Two reviewers independently identified measures from included articles. Evaluation of measures was completed using the COSMIN (consensus-based standards for the selection of health measurement instruments) checklist. A total of 13,529 papers were retrieved, 15 reporting measurement of motivation in this population. Two measures met criteria: Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire (DMQ) and Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire (PVQ). There was evidence of adequate validity for DMQ, and preliminary evidence of test-retest reliability. Psychometric evidence for PVQ was poor. Both measures demonstrated good clinical utility. The large number of retrieved papers highlights the importance being attributed to motivation in clinical studies, although measurement is seldom performed. Both identified measures show promise but further psychometric research is required.