Translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the universal Welch Emotional Connection Screen using primary and bilingual Spanish-speaking coders of videotaped mother-child interactions.

Introduction: Using clear explicit translatable language, we translated the Welch Emotional Connection Screen into a new universal language instrument, the Methods: We created a library of 52 five-minute Spanish-speaking mother-child videos that were collected during a randomized controlled trial of Mother-Child Emotional Preparation intervention (MCEP). The videos were collected at two time points, at enrollment and at a 6-month follow-up. The subsample of Primary Spanish-Speaking dyads from the MCEP study were coded by two independent teams of coders. We trained primary English-speaking (bilingual Spanish) coders on the oWECS, using the original training program. A different team of primary Spanish-speaking coders coded the same cases using the novel uWECS guide and trained briefly for reliability with the Spanish uWECS translation materials. Results: We found that the Spanish oWECS and Spanish uWECS ratings from the baseline and 6-month follow-up observations were robustly correlated, with intraclass correlations ranging from .81 to .84 and all Discussion: These findings demonstrate that the uWECS can be used to measure parent/child AEC in linguistically diverse populations and cultures.