He Piki Raukura: Assessing Ao Maori developmental constructs - Part I: Reliability of novel strengths-based measures among preschool Maori children

This is the first of two papers describing the creation of measurement tools for four Maori constructs of positive child behaviour - tuakiri (secure local Maori identity); whanauranga (acting as a member of a whanau); manawaroa (persisting despite difficulty); and piripono (having integrity, commitment and responsibility). This paper describes the psychometric properties of these new measures. Parents and teachers completed questionnaires on 28 children aged 0-5 years five times over 10 months in a Maori-medium early years setting, and video observations were made. Ratings of the videos showed good inter-rater reliability. All questionnaire measures had good internal consistency. Associations of questionnaires with rated observations varied at some timepoints suggesting a need to include both in ongoing research. This study provides initial evidence about reliability of our novel Maori measurement tools for assessment of preschool Maori children. Keywords: Maori Indigenous psychology, Maori constructs, Maori child behaviour measures, Maori child development, reliability, validity
Introduction In Aotearoa, a number of measurement tools are used to assess and evaluate young children's development and behaviour. These assessments are commonly carried out by psychologists in research or [...]