ESS Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring Child Signalling Behaviour in the Early Years: Development of the Emotional Signalling Scale
IRAS ID
331230
Contact name
Helen Minnis
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
MVLS Research Support Office
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 2 days
Research summary
Background
The primary caregiving relationship plays an important role in a child’s development and future wellbeing. Observing infant behaviour towards their primary caregiver (i.e whether a child signals joy or fear) can provide professionals with important information on how good the child-caregiver relationship is.The Emotional Signalling Scale (ESS) is an observational tool developed in a research trial involving children who have experienced abuse (the BeST trial). Low scores on the ESS are given when a child has poor signalling behaviour, for example does not look at their carer. Further assessment of the scale is important as professionals need good assessment tools for identifying children at risk of poor development. Tools also need to be simple to apply in practice and not too expensive.
Questions:
The primary question is to assess emotional signalling scores in infants. This project additionally aims to assess if the new ESS scale can provide trustworthy results (i.e reliable) during observations at the 30-month health visiting check.
Who is eligible?
Families with a 30-month-old infant which was born full term: after 37 weeks gestation), in addition to families with 30-month old infants born premature (defined by the World Health Organisation as born between 28 to 32 weeks' gestation). The study will be introduced to eligible participants by health visitors prior to the infants 30-month appointment. If consent is given the researcher will join the 30-month check, or arrange a separate time with the families to conduct a 20-minute observation of a mealtime and play-time activity within participants homes.Informed consent must be given to participate. Participation in the study will have no impact on patient’s routine care. Results from infants recruited through health visitors will be compared with scores from an existing data set.
REC name
London - Stanmore Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/PR/0393
Date of REC Opinion
17 May 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion