The Early Childhood Curiosity Questionnaire: Development and psychometric properties in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany

Curiosity in early childhood is associated with exploration, learning, and cognitive growth, yet little is known about how trait curiosity can be reliably assessed in preschoolers. This paper reports the development and validation of a caregiver-report measure designed to assess curiosity in children aged 2–5 years across three cultural contexts: the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany. Part 1 generated 41 age-appropriate items by adapting and extending the Infant and Toddler Curiosity Questionnaire (ITCQ; Altmann et al., 2025a), first in English, followed by Dutch and German translations. Part 2 examined the factor structure in each country independently (sample sizes: UK = 389; NL = 330; DE = 540), and discarded poorly fitting items and integrated results to produce a single, 25-item questionnaire comprising three subscales: Novelty, Investigative, and Interactive Curiosity. Part 3 evaluated the reliability and validity of this final instrument within each national sample to ensure robust performance across cultural contexts. Psychometric analyses indicated strong internal consistency, coherent relations to other related, validated measures, and evidence of cross-cultural applicability. The resulting measure, a direct continuation of the previously developed infant version, enables systematic assessment of young children’s curiosity as a multidimensional construct observable in everyday life.