Validation of the Intention Attribution Test for Children (IAC)

The Intention Attribution Test for Children (IAC) was created to assess hostile attribution bias in preschool- and early school-aged children. It comprises 16 cartoon strips presenting situations in which one character (either a child or an adult) causes harm to another, either intentionally, accidentally (nonintentional), or without his or her intention being clear (ambiguous). Its validity was tested on 233 children aged 4 to 12 years. Exploratory factor analysis and item response theory models demonstrated support for a single factor of hostile attribution bias for the ambiguous and nonintentional items. Analyses revealed, however, that the intentional items did not contribute to this same overall construct of hostile intention attribution bias. Correlations with the Social Perception Test and with sociometry suggest good validity of the IAC. The IAC may be a useful instrument for research and in the context of therapeutic intervention addressing socially inappropriate behavior in childhood.