Pilot sites

The principal aim of the proposed study is to collect pilot data from 300 children aged 5-12 for the LEVANTE project, from local schools in the London, Ontario, Canada region, through collaboration with the Thames Valley District School Board and the London Catholic District School Board. This pilot data will then be used as part of a larger effort to evaluate the age appropriateness of the core LEVANTE measures, their psychometric properties, and validity. By collecting pilot data at different sites with diverse geographical localization and languages it will become possible to evaluate the degree to which the core LEVANTE measures can be used in different contexts. Furthermore, the proposed pilot study will help to evaluate data pipelines developed for LEVANTE including the measurement platform, data validation tool, and data repository architecture.

This pilot data collection will ensure the adequate translation and adaptation process for the set of measures into Spanish and enable testing in a global south country. The LEVANTE Core Measures will be implemented with children aged 5-12, their primary caregivers, and their teachers. To ensure a successful translation and adaptation process, collaborations with local experts will take place to review LEVANTE’s proposed translations into Spanish. Individual applications and more than ten focus groups will be conducted with teachers, caregivers, and children to evaluate task comprehension, instruction clarity, and question wording. This process will help identify necessary adjustments for context appropriateness Additionally, this pilot data collection will shed light on challenges anticipated during data collection in LEVANTE sites in the Global South. These include hardware availability and quality of internet connection in schools, willingness of schools and stakeholders to participate, interest in results, familiarity with technology, and requirements for large-scale implementation efforts.

The data collection at this pilot site will identify the psychometric properties, validity, age appropriateness, and internationalization capabilities of the Core Measures designed for LEVANTE, their longitudinal stability and variability, as well as predictive relationships amongst the measures over time. This site will contribute three sets of data: a test dataset including all measures and questionnaires, a retest dataset, and a two-year follow-up dataset for the Core Measures. LEVANTE Core Measures will be administered online to children between 5 and 12 years and a primary caregiver. Furthermore, they will contribute data to evaluate data pipelines developed for LEVANTE including the measurement platform, data validation tool, and data repository architecture.

The planned research will focus on psychometric analysis of the data collected by the three LEVANTE pilot sites to assess the suitability of the measures for usage in the larger-scale LEVANTE project. The research aims are: 1. Analyse pilot data to evaluate psychometric performance of individual tasks and surveys slated for inclusion in the broader framework. 2. Investigate cross-task patterns in pilot data to understand the challenges and opportunities of multi-site data collection and how those might be addressed in practice and analysis. The data and samples from the three LEVANTE pilot studies will undergo analysis using psychometric techniques, such as item response theory and factor analysis. These analyses will examine how each item/trial supports the measurement of the intended constructs, the relations among the constructs, and how the (latent) construct scores differ with age and context. Measurement invariance across child characteristics and context will be evaluated to inform adjustments for future LEVANTE studies.