Psychometric properties and parental reported utility of the 19-item ‘About My Child’ (AMC-19) measure

BACKGROUND: ‘About My Child’ 19-item version (AMC-19) is a parent-report measure developed to assess the complexity of a child’s life due to biological, psychological, social and environmental issues, that can be completed in approximately 5 min. AMC measures two dimensions of complexity: parental concerns and impact on the child. This paper examines the psychometric properties and parent-reported utility of the AMC-19 for children with disabilities or special health care needs. METHOD: Data were gathered from two Canadian studies at CanChild: the ‘AMC-19 Pilot’ study and the ‘Service Utilization and Outcomes (SUO)’ study. The AMC-19 Pilot study data allowed us to explore internal consistency and test-retest reliability, as well as parental responses to two open-ended questions on the utility of the AMC-19. The SUO study provided data for analyses of internal consistency and scale property validation with type of diagnosis and service needs. RESULTS: The test-retest ICC was r = 0.83 for concerns and r = 0.87 for impact. Cronbach’s alpha across both studies ranged from 0.80 to 0.90. Parents’ comments on the AMC-19’s utility indicated support for the AMC-19, in particular to identify therapy needs and goals. CONCLUSIONS: The AMC-19 demonstrates strong psychometric properties supporting it as a valuable measure for describing the level of complexity among children with disabilities. We recommend using the AMC-19 in health services research and clinical settings to build dialogue between family and therapists due to its utility reported by parents.