Measuring epistemic curiosity in young children

Abstract

Epistemic curiosity (EC) is the desire to obtain new knowledge capable of either producing positive experiences of intellectual interest (I-type) or of reducing undesirable conditions of informational deprivation (D-type). Although researchers acknowledge that there are individual differences in young children's epistemic curiosity, there are no existing measures to assess the I- and D-type constructs of EC in early childhood. The aim of this study was to develop and validate parent-report scales that reliably assessed early expressions of I- and D- type EC in young children. To develop the I/D-Young Children (I/D-YC) scales, 16 potential items were administered to 316 parents of children aged 3 to 8. These items were adaptations of an existing adult self-report measure of EC as well as newly developed items. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that a 10-item 2-factor (5 I-type, 5 D-type) model had the best fit. Construct validity analyses and psychometric data indicated that our newly developed I/D-YC scales are valid and reliable measures of individual differences in early expressions of I- and D-type EC.