The value of the Parenting Scale for measuring the discipline practices of parents of middle school children

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Abstract

The psychometric properties of the Parenting Scale (Arnold, O'Leary, Wolff, and Acker, 1993), a 30-item instrument originally developed to assess the discipline practices of parents of preschool children, were examined for parents of middle school students. Subjects were 298 parents of middle school students identified as at-risk for problem behavior. An exploratory factor analysis identified two factors labeled `Overreactivity' and `Laxness', closely resembling two of the factors found by Arnold et al., but each of these factors contained only six items. Confirmatory factor analyses, using data from the first two assessments, replicated this factor structure. The factors were significantly correlated with measures of parents' behavior, with scales from the Child Behavior Checklist and Parent Daily Reports, and with the Beck Depression Inventory. The Laxness factor was less robust than the Overreactivity factor.

Introduction

This paper examines the value of the Parenting Scale (Arnold et al., 1993) for assessing the discipline practices of parents of middle school children. The scale was originally developed to assess parental discipline of preschool children (ages 18 to 48 months). It is a 30-item self-report instrument using seven-point scale items designed to help clinicians identify parenting `mistakes' that may contribute to ineffectual efforts to discipline young children. In the absence of such a measure for parents of middle school students, we decided to explore whether the Parenting Scale measure could be justified for use with this population.

Despite the numerous shortcomings of self-report measures (Patterson et al., 1973; Reid, 1978; Forehand et al., 1980; Chamberlain and Reid, 1987; Patterson et al., 1992; Ary et al., in press), such measures are needed in research on parenting practices. Self-reports provide a cost–effective method to assess the typical parenting practices for pinpointing critical parent behaviors for treatment and for assessing treatment outcome.

Unfortunately, self-report measures of disciplinary events may be flawed, perhaps because parents' reports of — or reaction to — their children's behavior are inaccurate (Robins, 1963; Reid et al., 1987), or perhaps because of systematic bias (Clement and Milne, 1967; Schnelle, 1974; Humphreys and Ciminero, 1979). Instruments that attempt to measure the frequency or harshness of parental discipline (Gordon et al., 1979; Trickett and Susman, 1988) may fail to describe the range of discipline `mistakes' such as laxness or inconsistency (McCord et al., 1961; Patterson, 1976, Patterson, 1982). While more global measurements of parental approaches to childrearing have been developed (e.g., Greenberger and Goldberg, 1989), the results do not necessarily provide enough detail to describe the adequacy of parental discipline.

The Parenting Scale is an attractive instrument in this regard, because it is burdened with relatively few of these problems. The measure is short and inexpensive to administer. The items are constructed as hypothetical situations, where the best answer is not always obvious, so that parental reactions to the frequency or severity of child behaviors and response bias are less likely to be a factor in parental responses. Tested on a relatively small sample of parents of behavior-disordered children (Arnold et al., 1993), the parenting scale showed adequate internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Correlations with other validated measures provide evidence for the convergent validity of the Parenting Scale. It was significantly correlated with other theoretically relevant instruments, including the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1988), the short form of the Locke–Wallace Marital Adjustment Test (SMAT; Locke and Wallace, 1959), and the child behavior checklist (Achenbach et al., 1987). The Parenting Scale distinguished between mothers who were attending a behavioral clinic to improve their child-management skills and non-clinic mothers. It was also correlated with observational measures of inadequate parental discipline and child misbehavior.

Although developed for parents of preschoolers, examination of the Parenting Scale's subscale constructs suggested that it could be appropriate for assessment of adolescents. The two chief constructs generally fit current models describing ineffective discipline strategies used by parents of adolescents. Arnold et al. (1993)equated the Overreactivity factor with an authoritarian parenting style which included threats and physical punishment. Patterson et al. (1992)and Dishion and Patterson (1997)reviewed an extensive literature supporting theories that harsh and coercive discipline is linked to child antisocial behavior in adolescents. Thus, we hypothesized that the Overreactivity factor was equivalent to the coercive discipline practices.

The Laxness factor is the second major Parenting Scale construct. In contrast to an overreactive parent, `laxness' describes a parent who is permissive and inconsistent when providing discipline. Considerable research shows that permissive parenting, characterized by a lack of consistency and ineffective limit-setting, is related to oppositional behavior and conduct disorders (e.g. Patterson, 1976; Snyder, 1977; Forehand et al., 1978; Kuczynski et al., 1987).

A third factor of the Parenting Scale, called Verbosity, describes a parent who tends to give lengthy verbal reprimands, rather than taking direct action. The Verbosity factor was considerably weaker than the Overreactivity and Laxness factors in the Arnold et al. (1993)analysis. While the Overreactivity and Laxness factors showed significant differences between clinic and non-clinic families on the Parenting Scale and other measures, the verbosity factor failed to show such differences.

A potential shortcoming of the Parenting Scale for use with adolescents is that only one item relates to parental monitoring. Parental supervision and monitoring have been found to have a strong and stable relationship with parental discipline and with child behavior (Patterson et al., 1992). Inadequate monitoring by parents has been linked to drug use (Dishion and Loeber, 1985) and other problem behaviors (Dishion and Andrews, 1995; Ary et al., in press).

In sum, if the Parenting Scale provides a brief but valid measure of discipline skill deficits of parents of at-risk adolescents, it will be useful to help evaluate remedial interventions for parents of adolescents. Because of its face validity and adequate psychometrics, the Parenting Scale was chosen as one of the assessment instruments in an experimental evaluation of a community-based program to improve the parenting skills of parents of middle school students. The results of that research (Irvine et al., 1998) suggest that the Parenting Scale is sensitive to intervention effects for up to one year. The present paper examines the psychometric properties of the Parenting Scale when used with parents of early adolescents.

Section snippets

Method

As part of a study of a parent training research program in eight small Oregon communities (population: 2,000–15,000), the Parenting Scale was included in an assessment battery for parents of early adolescents. The parenting intervention, the Adolescent Transitions Program (ATP; Dishion et al., 1996), consisted of a 12-week series of classes designed for parents of families experiencing adolescent behavior problems. Outcome effects on parenting skills were evaluated as part of a randomized

Results

First, analyses of the factor structure of the instrument are described. Next, reliabilities for each scale of the instrument are presented. Finally, correlations with other measures of family functioning are given.

Discussion

The results suggest that a shortened version of the Parenting Scale, which we have dubbed the Parenting Scale — Adolescent version (PSA), appears useful for assessing the discipline practices of parents with children of middle school age (e.g., 11–14 years old). Since parent disciplinary patterns have been shown to influence child and adolescent behavior (Patterson et al., 1992; Dishion and Patterson, 1997), the PSA could have utility as part of assessment packages designed to assess general

Acknowledgements

This paper was supported by Grant No. DA07389 from the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Additional support was provided by Grants CA38273 from the National Cancer Institute, and Grants DA09306 and DA 09678 from the National Institute of Drug Abuse. The authors would like to thank Wanda Ballentine for her help with preparation of the manuscript. Constructive comments on drafts of the manuscript were provided by Manuel Barrera, Lisa James, and Carol Metzler.

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