INTAKT: A new instrument for assessing the quality of mother-child interactions

Despite abundant evidence for the influence of primary caregivers’ interaction with young children, on their further development, there is a lack of standardized and published inventories for assessing the quality of such interactions. INTAKT, a newly developed instrument, which helps to rate maternal sensitivity, maternal feedback, and maternal interaction in joint attention episodes, is designed to close this gap. Two studies examined the psychometric properties of INTAKT, applying it to different kinds of mother-child dyads. Inter-rater reliabilities, as well as validation data using internal and external criteria, showed that the INTAKT scales allowed for an objective, reliable, and valid assessment of interaction quality between mothers and their children. Thus, the inventory is suitable as a diagnostic instrument for assessing the quality of mother-child interactions.