Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the validity evidence of the Family Provider/Teacher Relationship Quality- Family Report (FPTRQ-F) with ethnically diverse toddlers enrolled in Early Head Start programs. There were three aims: (1) to examine the underlying factor structure of the FPTRQ-F, (2) to examine concurrent validity through associations with another teacher-family relationship quality measure, and (3) to examine concurrent associations between teacher-family relationship quality and toddler’s developmental skills, assessed in language and social-emotional domains. Confirmatory factor analyses suggested inadequate fit of our data to the published structure for the three FPTRQ-F domains. Results from exploratory factor analyses conducted in this sample resulted in the following seven subscales: Child-specific Knowledge, Family-specific Knowledge, Collaboration, Responsiveness, Communication, Commitment, and Understanding the Context. Positive associations between the FPTRQ-F subscales and concurrent measures of teacher-relationship quality and children’s language and social-emotional skills provided initial validity evidence to support the use of the FPTRQ-F scales within this sample. Although the FPTRQ-F measures teacher-family relationship quality as a multidimensional construct, concerns remain with the use of the FPTRQ-F in early childhood programs. We do not recommend the FPTRQ-F for use in early childhood programs, due to the concerns with the lack of alignment with the conceptual model, lack of evidence for the original factor structure in this sample, length of the questionnaire, use of inconsistent item response anchors across the measure, and literacy level of the measure. Limitations and future directions of this study are discussed.