Measuring selected disruptive behaviors of the 36- to 60-month-old patient. Part I: Development and assessment of a rating scale.

Abstract

The purpose of Part I of the study is to develop an objective method for assessing the amount of disruptive child behavior for children 36-60 months of age undergoing dental treatment. Using videotaped dental visits and recording behavior with an Esterling-Angus event recorder, an initial attempt to utilize a scale with eight behaviors suggested by the literature was evaluated. The final scale focused on four behaviors (high-hand and leg movement; crying; and oral physical resistance) which occurred more than 5~ of the time and exhibited in terra ter reliability from 83-91~. The method was stable across different raters who were trained independently. Correlations between the behaviors and the Frankl sca]e were in the expected directions.