Design and Validation of the Instrument to Assess Narrative Quality in Fictional Oral Stories Created with Attachment Script Assessment

This article reports the design and validation of the narrative quality assessment instrument (ecan, in Spanish), whose objective is to allow the valuation of fictional recounts that are produced orally and spontaneously. The phase of design involved the identification of the evaluation criteria, their operationalization and weighting. A pilot test and an interrater evaluation process allowed for its adjustment. Later, an empirical validation process was carried out on a corpus of 184 recounts produced by 66 Colombian mothers. Statistical analyzes, such as Cronbach alpha and inter-class coefficients, Chi Square, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (kmo) tests, Bartlett’s sphericity and a two-stage conglomerate analysis; revealed a high internal consistency, a very significant interrater reliability and a significant content validity. The analyses also showed that by using an adequate training, the ecan allows for an evaluation of the recounts without biases and errors, which makes the instrument not only reliable but also necessary to inquire about the quality of narrative discourse in diverse contexts.