The Infant and Toddler Curiosity Questionnaire: Dutch Translation and Validation

Curiosity and its role in learning and early cognitive development has received increasing attention in infancy research. So far, insights have largely focused on controlled lab-based experimental studies while less is known about individual differences in infants’ curiosity in everyday life. Recently, the Infant and Toddler Curiosity Questionnaire (ITCQ) was developed to examine trait curiosity in infants between 5 to 24 months. Extending this novel tool to Dutch-speaking families, this preregistered study translated the ITCQ to Dutch and examined its psychometric properties in a sample of 316 Dutch-speaking caregivers of infants in The Netherlands (5 to 24 months, 47% female). The results indicated that the ITCQ-NL reliably measures infants’ general curiosity and their curiosity in three subdomains (Sensory, Investigative, and Interactive Curiosity). Furthermore, the ITCQ-NL showed moderate to good reliability over time (n = 218). Finally, we provide evidence of the questionnaire’s construct validity by relating the construct to established temperament measures. To conclude, this study demonstrates the reliability and validity of the ITCQ-NL for assessing individual differences in infants’ everyday trait curiosity in a Dutch population. Our instrument will also facilitate the exploration of cross-cultural differences and comparisons across methodological approaches.