Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory: a cross-cultural comparison of daily function between Taiwanese and American children.
Taiwanese kids score lower on self-care and social PEDI items after age four—use the new Chinese norms to keep expectations fair.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team gave the Chinese PEDI to kids in Taiwan and the U.S. They compared self-care, mobility, and social scores.
Children were neurotypical or had mild delays. The goal was to see if the same test works the same way in both cultures.
What they found
The Chinese PEDI is reliable and valid. After age four, Taiwanese children scored lower in self-care and social function than American peers.
The gap stayed the same through the elementary years.
How this fits with other research
Elad et al. (2013) also used the PEDI. They showed mothers of kids with CP rate self-care lower than clinicians do. Chen et al. (2010) now gives us culture-level norms, so you can judge if a Taiwanese score is low for the child or low for the country.
Chang et al. (2013) found social skills are the weakest area for high-functioning Taiwanese children with ASD. The new norms confirm social function is lower even in typical Taiwanese kids, so the benchmark itself is lower.
Chiang et al. (2013) tracked heavy medical use in Taiwanese youth with ID. Together these papers paint the same picture: Taiwanese kids with delays access lots of care but still show lower daily skills, so treatment plans need to aim for culturally realistic gains.
Why it matters
If you work with Taiwanese families, compare their PEDI scores to Taiwanese norms, not U.S. ones. A score that looks delayed by American standards may be average locally. Set goals that close the gap with local peers first, then push toward global standards.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The study described the psychometric properties of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) when used in Taiwanese normally developing children and illustrated the ethnic differences in determining capacity and independence in daily function between Taiwanese and American children. The Chinese version of the PEDI (PEDI-C) was administered to Taiwanese parents of 494 normally developing children and 110 children with developmental disabilities (DD). The scores of Taiwanese population were compared with the American counterparts using independent samples t-test. The PEDI-C had demonstrated good psychometric properties when used in Chinese-speaking population. The results revealed that internal consistency and inter-rater reliability was high. The unidimensionality of each domain was supported by Mokken analysis. The standardized factor scores of the PEDI-C differentiated children with DD from normally developing children. Group differences existed in various areas of daily function between Taiwanese and American children. Taiwanese children were less capable and needed more assistance in self-care and social function of daily living, especially after 4 years of age. Taiwanese and American children had similar capacity and performance in mobility. The identified discrepancy could serve as a guide of child-rearing for parents and for clinicians working with clients from different cultural backgrounds in a culturally diverse society.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2010 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2010.05.002