Developing A Clinical Support Tool of Suboptimal Caregiver Behaviours During Vaccination: Preliminary Validation of the Opportunities to Understand Childhood Hurt Inoculation (OUCHI) Tool

Infant distress regulation is heavily contingent on sensitive caregiver soothing, which is important for child socioemotional development. Routine vaccinations provide clinicians the opportunity to support caregiver soothing across childhood. However, there is no clinical tool or norms to identify dyads that may need support in this important area. The object of the present thesis was to develop a clinical support tool highlighting caregiver behaviours that increase infant distress during vaccination the OUCHI Tool (Opportunities to Understand Childhood Hurt Inoculation Tool), and establish its preliminary psychometric properties (i.e., reliability and validity). The tool was developed and validated by synergizing extensive research experience in vaccination behaviours, clinician expertise in everyday practice, and archival vaccination data (n = 537). Our findings showed interrater reliability, test-retest reliability, and ecological, content, face, convergent, and divergent validity. The OUCHI Tool is a promising tool that can help integrate infant mental health practices during pediatric well-baby visits.