OBJECTIVE Oral health self-efficacy is a modifiable determinant of early childhood caries, which is one of the most prevalent childhood diseases. Yet, two common measures of self-efficacy (i.e., context-specific and behavior-specific) lack validation and clarity in the prediction of children's oral health behaviors. This study examined the psychometric properties of two caregiver oral health self-efficacy measures and investigated the predictive ability and age-varying effects of caregiver oral health self-efficacy on child oral health behaviors. METHOD In this secondary data analysis of caregiver-child dyads (n = 754, Mchild age = 2.4, 56.2% Black or African American, 68.3% below poverty level), caregivers reported their oral health self-efficacy and their child's tooth brushing frequency, diet, and sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption at baseline and 4, 12, and 24 months. Psychometrics were examined with confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) and the predictive ability and age-varying effects of caregiver self-efficacy on child oral health behaviors were examined with time-varying effect models (TVEMs). RESULTS The context- and behavior-specific oral health self-efficacy CFA models indicated mixed model fit. In the predictive TVEM models, greater behavior-specific, but not context-, oral health self-efficacy predicted greater child tooth brushing across all ages. Greater context-specific oral health self-efficacy predicted healthier child diet throughout childhood, but greater behavior-specific self-efficacy only predicted healthier child diet in older children. Greater behavior-specific self-efficacy predicted lower SSB consumption throughout childhood while greater context-specific self-efficacy only predicted lower SSB consumption in younger children. CONCLUSIONS Both caregiver oral health self-efficacy measures were psychometrically comparable and differentially predicted oral health behaviors across varying childhood ages. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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两种以看护者为目标的自我效能测量对促进服务不足儿童口腔健康的差异预测效用。

目的 口腔健康自我效能是儿童早期龋齿的一个可改变的决定因素，龋齿是最常见的儿童疾病之一。然而，自我效能的两种常见衡量标准（即针对具体情况和针对具体行为）在预测儿童口腔健康行为方面缺乏验证和明确性。本研究检查了两种护理人员口腔健康自我效能感测量的心理测量特性，并调查了护理人员口腔健康自我效能感对儿童口腔健康行为的预测能力和随年龄变化的影响。方法 在对看护者与儿童二人组（n = 754，Mchild 年龄 = 2.4，56.2% 黑人或非裔美国人，68.3% 低于贫困线）的二次数据分析中，看护者报告了他们的口腔健康自我效能和孩子的刷牙频率，基线以及 4、12 和 24 个月时的饮食和含糖饮料 (SSB) 消耗量。通过验证性因素分析（CFA）检查心理测量学，并通过时变效应模型（TVEM）检查看护者自我效能对儿童口腔健康行为的预测能力和随年龄变化的影响。结果特定环境和行为的口腔健康自我效能 CFA 模型表明混合模型拟合。在预测性 TVEM 模型中，较高的特定行为而非情境口腔健康自我效能可预测所有年龄段儿童的刷牙次数。更高的针对具体情况的口腔健康自我效能可预测整个童年时期更健康的儿童饮食，但更高的针对行为的自我效能只能预测年龄较大的儿童更健康的儿童饮食。较高的行为特定自我效能感预示着整个童年时期的 SSB 消费量较低，而较高的特定情境自我效能感仅预示着年幼儿童的 SSB 消费量较低。结论 两种护理人员口腔健康自我效能感测量在心理测量上具有可比性，并且可以差异化地预测不同儿童年龄的口腔健康行为。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2023 APA，保留所有权利）。