Glossary
A
Aboriginal Steering Committee (ASC) – constitutes of First Nation, Inuit, and Métis community members. The ASC shares their knowledge and experiences with HELP to facilitate a deeper understanding of the social, environmental and cultural determinants of Indigenous children’s health and well being (See more on ASC).
Active Consent – the act of giving written confirmation either by the participant or the parent/caregiver/guardian of a participant who is under the age of 16 to be involved in a research study (See also Parent/Caregiver/Guardian).
Adolescence – a developmental period marked by several changes in children’s physical, cognitive, and emotional health as well as changes in relationships with family and peers.
Aggregated (data) – combines individual-level data to produce summary-level data, such as by geography (e.g., postal code), or by school district (e.g., where a child goes to school).
Asset – the positive experiences, relationships, or behaviours present in children’s lives. Assets are actionable, meaning that schools and communities can focus their efforts in particular areas to create and foster conditions and contexts where children can thrive (See also: MDI, Asset Index).
Asset Index – combines measures that represent important external factors that can support children’s well-being, and includes the following five areas: Adult Relationships, Peer Relationships, Nutrition & Sleep, Out-of-School Activities, and School Experiences. (See also: MDI, School Experiences Dimension).
At Risk (on an EDI scale) – a summary measure on the EDI Dashboard that reports the percentage and number of children who are neither on track for all scales, nor vulnerable on any of the scales. Children included in this measure may or may not catch up to their on-track peers and may benefit from additional supports (See also: Scales, EDI, Vulnerable, Vulnerability, On Track)
B
Biological Embedding – the process by which children’s early life experiences and environments influence development by altering biological processes and influence health and well-being over the long term.
C
Child Development Monitoring System – or simply, the monitoring system, consists of five questionnaires (the TDI, YDI, CHEQ, EDI, and MDI) that collect population-level data about multiple developmental stages from the early life course, through the middle years, and finally during secondary school (See also: Population-level study, Middle Years).
Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (CHEQ) – is a questionnaire completed by parents and caregivers as the child enters kindergarten. The CHEQ collects data on children’s experiences in their early environments and covers five domains which are strongly linked to children’s well-being, learning, and social outcomes: Physical Health & Well-Being, Language & Cognition, Social & Emotional Experiences, Early Learning & Care, and Community & Context (See also: Domains).
Compassionate Systems Leadership (CSL) – a way of leading that guides individuals and groups to work together to bring about a positive impact. It focuses on learning and growing in three areas: Personal Mastery (understanding yourself better), Reflective or Generative Interactions (communicating with others in a thoughtful manner), and Systems Thinking (thinking about how everything is connected in a system) (See more on CSL).
Connectedness Dimension – on the MDI, measures the children’s feelings of sense of connectedness to family, peers, school and community (See also: MDI, Dimensions).
Critical Difference – a statistical method for determining when two scores are different enough to reasonably conclude that the difference is real, rather than the result of uncertainty due to measurement issues (See also: Meaningful Change).
D
Dashboard – an interactive, online tool currently available for the Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI) and Early Development Instrument (EDI) which can be used to explore data collected for these instruments across years and geographical areas. Users are able to explore data in different chart views, explore individual measures and items as well as use an interactive map to visualize data (Explore the Dashboard).
Dimension – the MDI gathers data on five key developmental areas known as Dimensions. These include Social & Emotional Development, Physical Health & Well-Being, Connectedness, Use of Out-of-School Time and School Experience (See more on Intro to MDI Dimensions and Indices).
Domain – key developmental areas covered in the CHEQ which include Physical Health & Well-Being, Language & Cognition, Social & Emotional Experiences, Early Learning & Care and Community & Context.
E
Early Development Instrument (EDI) – a questionnaire completed by kindergarten teachers for children in their classrooms. The EDI gathers information surrounding five core areas of early childhood development, or scales: Physical Health & Well-Being, Social Competence, Emotional Maturity, Language & Cognitive Development, and Communication Skills & General Knowledge (See also: Scales, Vulnerability).
e-System – websites developed by HELP for the implementation of the CHEQ, EDI, and MDI questionnaires and the generation and distribution of reports to authorized users.
EDI Scale Vulnerability – measured and reported as the percentage of children who are vulnerable on each of the five scales of the EDI (See also: Scales, Vunerable on one or more Scales)
F
Five Safes Framework – a set of rules, agreements, practices, and legislations that HELP implements to safeguard data. The 5 safes framework consists of: Safe People, Safe Projects, Safe Settings, Safe Data and Safe Output (See more on Five Safes).
H
HELP Neighbourhoods – boundaries created by HELP through meaningful aggregations of census blocks, postal code boundaries, city planning boundaries and geographical features (See HELP Data Library for access to HELP neighbourhood shapefile).
I
In Flux (overall) – a summary measure on the EDI Dashboard that reports the percentage and number of children who are neither on track for all scales, nor vulnerable on any of the scales of the EDI. Children included in this measure may or may not catch up to their on-track peers and may benefit from additional supports (See also: On Track).
Informed Passive Consent – for minimal risk studies, informs a participant of details of a research study in advance, giving them sufficient time to opt out of the study prior to implementation. Consent can be withdrawn at any time, before or during the study by informing the researchers, otherwise it is assumed a participant is willing to participate in the study (See more on Consent Protocol at HELP).
K
Knowledge Mobilization – or knowledge translation, refers to the act of researchers and knowledge users such as practitioners and policy makers, coming together to collaborate throughout a research cycle, in order to improve the health of people and populations.
M
Margin of Error – refers to the degree of uncertainty about the exact value of what is being measured, when results are based on samples rather than whole population.
Meaningful Change – when the amount of change in a trend or pattern, over a period of time, is large enough to conclude that the difference is statistically significant, rather than the result of chance or measurement error (See also: Critical Difference).
Measure – or “component measure” is made up of a collection of related responses from the MDI questionnaire (See more on Measure).
Middle Years – or early adolescence refers to children between the ages 9–13. It is a developmental phase marked by major physical, cognitive, and emotional change as well as shifts in peer and adult relationships.
Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI) – a self-report questionnaire that asks children in Grades 4 through 8 about their thoughts, feelings, and experiences in school, at home, and in the community using a strength based and asset-based approach. (See also: Asset, Asset Index, Well-Being Index, Dimensions, Middle Years, Social and Emotional Learning).
N
Neighbourhood-level Reports – reports showing data aggregated by postal codes, representing children that live in each neighbourhood within the school district boundaries.
O
On Track (on an EDI scale) – a summary measure on the EDI Dashboard that reports the percentage and number of children who score above the 25th percentile cut-off in the area of development measured by the scale.
On Track (Overall) – a summary measure on the EDI Dashboard that reports the percentage and number of children who are developmentally on-track across all five scales of the EDI. Children included in this measure are most likely to have successful trajectories in school and beyond.
Overall Outcome – the percentage of children on track, vulnerable or in flux in their overall development across all scales (See more on Overall Outcome) (See also: On Track, Vulnerable, In Flux, Scale-level Outcome)
P
Parent/Caregiver/Guardian – in the context of HELP; a parent/caregiver/guardian is the person who is legally responsible for the child and has the power to grant informed consent and share information about them on questionnaires (See also: Informed Passive Consent, Active Consent).
Physical Health and Well-Being Dimension – on the MDI, measures children’s overall physical health outcomes in relationship to external factors such as family relationships, connections with peers, and larger economic and social conditions (See also: MDI).
Population Health – an approach to health that aims to improve the health and well-being of populations through observing patterns and trends in health, as well as the root causes of health outcomes.
Population-level Study – a study of a group of individuals taken from the general population who share a common characteristic, such as age, grade, school, and neighbourhood.
Private Reports – reports that are shared directly with participating schools and school districts. These reports are not shared publicly because they do not meet suppression thresholds or contain sensitive data (See also: Suppression).
Proportionate Universality – refers to programs, services, and policies that are universal, but with a scale and intensity that is proportionate to the level of disadvantage.
Public Reports – reports that meet suppression thresholds are available to the public at the end of a data collection period. These reports may be aggregated at the provincial, school district, or neighbourhood level (See also: Suppression, Aggregated Data) (See available Public Reports).
R
Reliability – refers to the consistency of a tool i.e., that results for the measure are stable and reproducible over a period of time and across different situations.
Risky Play – an area of research; activities in play where the children take risks, such as, climbing trees, building structures, or playing around fire (Learn more on Outside Play UBC Lab).
Resilience – refers to experiencing well-being and healthy development despite stress and challenges.
S
Scales – the five core areas of early child development measured on the EDI. These include Physical Health & Well-Being, Social Competence, Emotional Maturity, Language & Cognitive Development, and Communication Skills & General Knowledge (See also: EDI).
Scale-level Outcome – the percentage of children on track, at risk or vulnerable in a specific area of development that the scale is measuring (See more on Scale-Level Outcome) (See also: Overall Outcome).
School Report – provide data aggregated by where children go to school. Separate reports are produced that are available to the participating school systems through the e-System (See also: e-System).
School District Report – combine aggregated data into summaries according to school district boundaries. An annual school district report is produced for each participating school district (See available School District Reports).
School Experiences Dimension – on the MDI, measures the children’s sense of safety and belonging at school. Understanding school experiences can help improve the ability to create and cultivate safe, supportive, and caring school environments.
Six Rs – refer to the guiding principles of Indigenous research at HELP: Relationship, Respect, Reciprocity, Relevance, Responsibility, Representation, and the assumption of Rights and Regulations (See more on Six Rs).
on the MDI, measures children’s social and emotional competence and includes the ability to understand and manage emotions, develop caring and empathy for others and establish positive relationships.
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) – refers to the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.
factors that influence a society’s health and well-being through the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, as well as the societal forces and systems that shape their daily lives.
Socio-Economic Status (SES) – is a measure of an individual’s or family’s economic and social position relative to others. It is based on a range of measures including household income, education, and occupation.
in health, the association between people’s social position (often described in terms of socio-economic status or SES) and their health-related outcomes: the lower people’s social status, income, and/or education, the poorer their health-related outcomes are on average (See also: Socio-Economic Status).
Subscales – measure a specific area of development within an EDI scale. EDI scales consist of three or more subscales (See also: EDI, Scales).
Sub-domain – measure specific patterns or trends within the broader domain. Each Domain in the CHEQ consists of several sub-domains (See also: CHEQ, Domain).
Suppression – (in public health reporting) the process of removing select data from public reports and datasets to protect identities, privacy, and personal information of students, teachers, or administrators. At HELP, private reports such as school reports are suppressed when there are fewer than five children in a school to ensure that individual children cannot be identified. Public reports, such as school district reports, are suppressed when there are fewer than 35 students (See also: Private Reports, Public Reports).
T
Toddler Development Instrument (TDI) – a questionnaire completed by parents or caregivers of children aged 12-24 months. It collects data on early experiences and environments of children and their families (See also: Parent/Caregiver/Guardian).
Total Environmental Assessment Model of Early Childhood Development (TEAM-ECD) – a measure developed by researchers at HELP based on the idea that the influence of the circumstances children are born into, combined with their physical and social environments, can either promote or compromise healthy development. This measure explores the differences that can promote equitable and healthy development for children and youth.
Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS) – a joint policy of Canada’s three federal research agencies expressing the commitment to promote ethical conduct of research involving humans.
U
Use of Out-of-School-Time Dimension – on the MDI, measures children’s involvement in activities outside of school hours, such as music lessons, sports leagues and community groups.
V
Validity – is a criterion used to assess the quality of a measurement. It refers to the accuracy of a tool, i.e., it measures what it is supposed to measure.
Vulnerable (EDI) – children who are more likely to experience future challenges in their school years and beyond without additional support and care are considered vulnerable on the EDI.
Vulnerable on One or More Scales – a summary measure that reports the percentage of children who are vulnerable on at least one of the five scales of the EDI. Children on this scale may be experiencing vulnerability on just one of the five scales or two, three, four or all five scales of the EDI.
W
Wave – EDI Data are collected in three to four-year periods known as a wave.
Well-Being Index (MDI) – is a holistic summary of children’s social, emotional, and physical health.
Y
Youth Development Instrument (YDI) – is a self-reported questionnaire completed by students in Grades 10 to 12 and collects data to better understanding developmental trends and the well-being of adolescents in British Columbia.