Parenting

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Assessing Childrearing Attitudes: Validation of a Shortened Version of the Parenting Questionnaire a

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Karen S. Budd , Christina M. Danko , Yan Li & Silvia Henriquez a

Department of Psychology, DePaul University, 2219 N. Kenmore Ave., Chicago, IL 60614, USA b

DePaul University Published online: 14 Jan 2015.

Click for updates To cite this article: Karen S. Budd, Christina M. Danko, Yan Li & Silvia Henriquez (2015) Assessing Childrearing Attitudes: Validation of a Shortened Version of the Parenting Questionnaire, Parenting: Science and Practice, 15:1, 39-54, DOI: 10.1080/15295192.2015.992737 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15295192.2015.992737

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PARENTING: SCIENCE AND PRACTICE, 15: 39–54, 2015 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1529-5192 print / 1532-7922 online DOI: 10.1080/15295192.2015.992737

Assessing Childrearing Attitudes: Validation of a Shortened Version of the Parenting Questionnaire Downloaded by [Professor Karen Budd] at 09:51 16 January 2015

Karen S. Budd, Christina M. Danko, Yan Li, and Silvia Henriquez SYNOPSIS Objective. This study investigated the feasibility and validity of the parenting questionnaire, a measure designed to assess attitudes toward acceptable and unacceptable parenting practices in parents of young children. In addition, the study aimed to reduce the number of items in the parenting questionnaire to increase the utility of the measure. Design. Participants were ethnically diverse parents (N = 420) of children between the ages of 2 and 6 living in an urban, Midwestern city. Both principal components analysis and principal axis factoring were conducted to reduce redundant items and to examine the factor structure of the questionnaire. Correlations between the parenting questionnaire factors and independent scales of constructs similar to the parenting questionnaire factors were examined to assess convergent and discriminant validity. Results. The shortened (30-item) parenting questionnaire accounted for a moderate amount of total variance, retained the same factor structure as the longer measure, and demonstrated adequate internal reliability. Validity findings show a pattern of correlations between independent scales and parenting questionnaire factors consistent with hypothesized expectations. Conclusions. The shortened parenting questionnaire is a valid and feasible measure for assessing childrearing attitudes in parents of young children. The findings provide support for the parenting questionnaire’s potential to fill a void in attitude assessment methodology by contributing a vignette-based attitudinal measure that assesses both positive and negative parenting constructs.

INTRODUCTION The family environment is the primary context for children’s early socialization, and as such it plays a crucial role in influencing children’s future development. An authoritative parenting style (i.e., high warmth, control, and use of negotiations) has been linked repeatedly to children’s adaptive and prosocial development, whereas an authoritarian parenting style (i.e., low warmth, high control, and little or no use of negotiations) has been linked to less adaptive child outcomes (e.g., Armistead, Forehand, Brody, & Maguen, 2002; Barber, 1996; Baumrind, 1971, 1991; Gershoff, 2002; Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992; Steinberg, Lamborn, Dornbusch, & Darling, 1992; Taylor, Manganello, Lee, & Rice, 2010; Thompson, Hollis, & Richards, 2003). Although parenting has been conceptualized somewhat differently across studies, research consistently supports a link between positive, nurturing caregiver interactions and secure attachment, leading to increased child competence (Baumrind, 1971, 1991; National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2000). Likewise, punitive physical discipline as well as psychological control tactics, such as threats and intimidation, have been associated with


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propensity for child maltreatment and with negative outcomes for children (Aucoin, Frick, & Bodin, 2006; Barber, 1996; Gershoff, 2002; Straus, 2001; Thompson et al., 2003). Parenting research has employed multiple approaches to assessing childrearing, including self-report and observation of parent behaviors and self-report of parental attitudes or beliefs, which are presumed to relate to and underlie behaviors (Bornstein, Putnick, & Lansford, 2011; Darling & Steinberg, 1993). Most investigations focus on either parent behaviors or parental attitudes/beliefs; however, studies that have looked at these domains together have found that each contributes to identifying correlates of higher risk for child maladjustment (Barnett, Shanahan, Deng, Haskett, & Cox, 2010; Fung & Lau, 2009; Lau, Litrownik, Newton, Black, & Everson, 2006; Thompson et al., 1999). Crick and Dodge (1994) developed the social information processing (SIP) theory, which posits that an individual’s past experiences, social scripts, and beliefs influence behavior (Halgunseth, Ispa, & Rudy, 2006). This theory suggests that parental attitudes may also serve to motivate parental behavior. Thus research supports the importance of considering both behavioral and social-cognitive domains in understanding parenting and implementing interventions to change parenting patterns. Although many measures have been developed for studying parental attitudes, the dearth of measures with established psychometric properties has limited research in this area (Holden & Buck, 2002; Holden & Edwards, 1989; Hurley, Huscroft-D’Angelo, Trout, Griffith, & Epstein, 2013). The current study investigated the feasibility and validity of a recently developed measure, the parenting questionnaire (PQ; Budd et al., 2012), for assessing childrearing attitudes among parents of young children (ages 2–6 years). Additionally, the study aimed to reduce the number of items in the PQ to increase the utility of the measure. The PQ was designed to assess attitudes about one positive and two negative parenting domains that have frequently been associated with differing child outcomes. In the PQ, attitudes about positive, nurturing behaviors are measured by the supportive feedback factor; attitudes about corporal punishment are assessed by the physical discipline factor; and attitudes about psychologically harsh or intrusive behaviors are assessed by the critical feedback factor (Budd et al., 2012). Prior research has identified an association between endorsement of punitive attitudes and higher risk of child maltreatment or maladaptive caregiving practices (Corral-Verdugo, Frías-Armenta, Romero, & Muñoz, 1995; Holden, Coleman, & Schmidt, 1995). This risk may be particularly salient in the context of low acceptance of positive parenting methods or when parental attitudes deviate from the normative context of the community or culture (Deater-Deckard, Lansford, Dodge, Pettit, & Bates, 2003; Thompson et al., 1999; Wissow, 2001). Further research to establish the validity of the PQ factors would allow for examination of attitude patterns across the three parenting constructs as they relate to child outcomes.

The Use of Attitude Measures to Study Parenting An attitude has been described as a tendency to act or react in a favorable or unfavorable way to an object or behavior (Eagly & Chaiken, 1998). Social scientists have shown longstanding enthusiasm for the study of attitudes, as reflected in Gordon Allport’s (1935) assertion that attitudes are among the most indispensable constructs in social psychology (Maio, Olson, & Cheung, 2012). In a meta-analysis of 88 attitude–behavior studies, Kraus (1995) found that attitudes significantly predicted future behavior;


ASSESSING CHILDREARING ATTITUDES

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Furthermore, the meta-analysis identified several factors associated with an increased magnitude in the attitude–behavior correlation. The use of attitude measures to study parenting was extremely popular in American psychology throughout the 20th century. Much of this research focused on parent views of discipline, punishment, and control (Holden & Edwards, 1989), due to concerns that endorsement of certain types of discipline and control strategies is related to less adaptive parenting and child outcomes. However, Holden and colleagues (Holden & Buck, 2002; Holden & Edwards, 1989) identified numerous problems in the design, conceptual bases, and psychometric characteristics of traditional parent attitude measures. They noted that most parent attitude measures have at best limited evidence as to their psychometric characteristics, and they emphasized the need for methodologically sound attitude measures that adhere to basic rules of test construction and demonstrate acceptable psychometric characteristics. The Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI; Bavolek, 1984; Bavolek & Keene, 1999) has been used to measure potentially harmful childrearing attitudes in several studies with samples at risk of punitive or abusive parenting (e.g., Acevedo, 2000; Cicchetti, Rogosch, & Toth, 2006; Jambunathan, Burts, & Pierce, 2000; Lau et al., 2006). Psychometric studies of the AAPI, however, have revealed mixed findings (Cicchetti et al., 2006; Conners, Whiteside-Mansell, Deere, Ledet, & Edwards, 2006), and a search of more recent literature failed to reveal any new childrearing attitude measures with strong psychometric support (Hurley et al., 2013). Furthermore, the AAPI focuses only on attitudes about negative or inappropriate parenting practices, rather than both positive and negative practices. In addition to methodological weaknesses, another constraint of existing parent attitude measures is that most assess general attitudes that are not specific to the child’s developmental level or gender or to the environmental context. Kraus (1995) found that greater levels of specificity in attitude measures were associated with more accurate predictions of behavior, which suggests that attitude measures using contextspecific vignettes might result in higher attitude–behavior correlations. Context-specific vignettes also would allow for assessment of views about childrearing practices that typically occur in private and may be useful in providing information about the risk for maladaptive parenting that would be too difficult to obtain directly (Budd et al., 2012). The PQ Budd et al. (2012) developed a 63-item rating instrument, the PQ, to measure attitudes about acceptable and unacceptable parenting practices. The PQ includes items reflecting positive or supportive behaviors, constructive guidance and discipline, and items that in some contexts have been associated with maladaptive parenting or with child abuse or neglect. Items provide context-specific vignettes about a concrete parent behavior, a target child, and the time and circumstances in which the interaction occurred, in an attempt to increase the match between the attitude and behavior being assessed. To strengthen content validity, Budd et al. (2012) consulted with subject matter experts representing ethnically and culturally diverse psychologists, parents, and college students to identify items receiving high endorsement. Experts rated the appropriateness of items to the parenting factors they were designed to assess and the likelihood that item responses would vary across cultures. Items receiving high endorsement were selected, and others were revised or eliminated. Budd and colleagues (Budd et al., 2012) selected college students as the focus of their developmental research. Although many college


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students are not yet parents, all have experienced the childrearing practices of their own parents and have been exposed to other socialization experiences that may influence their views. Factor analysis supported the three-factor structure (supportive feedback, physical discipline, and critical feedback), and psychometric findings suggested that the PQ is a reliable, stable, and valid measure of attitudes toward parenting. Based on the promising findings of the PQ with college students (Budd et al., 2012), the current study aimed to systematically investigate its feasibility as a measure of childrearing attitudes with parents of young children. Furthermore, the original measure is relatively long, and this research aimed to reduce the number of items through exploratory factor analysis to make the scale more concise and easier to administer. A third aim was to assess the convergent and discriminant validity of the PQ factors for a parent sample with independent scales measuring the PQ subscale constructs. The authors hypothesized that there would be relatively higher correlations between pairs of PQ subscales and independent scales measuring similar constructs than between other pairs. Specifically, it was expected for the PQ supportive feedback subscale to correlate with a measure of positive parenting, the critical feedback subscale with a psychological control scale, and the physical discipline subscale with a measure of attitudes toward spanking. By evaluating the applicability of the PQ with parents, this study explored the scale’s potential usefulness as a resource for developmental and clinical research on the role of parental attitudes in childrearing. METHOD Participants Parents (or other primary caregivers) of children ages 2 to 6 years living in a large urban Midwestern city were invited to participate in a parenting survey, which had been approved by the university’s Institutional Review Board. Primary caregivers other than parents were chosen to be included in the sample to more fully reflect the make-up of individuals serving in a parenting role. The current study was conducted in conjunction with another study designed for parents of children between the ages of 2 and 6. Participants were recruited from 26 early childhood locations across the city, including preschools, Head Starts, daycares, and after-school programs. The authors selected sites to access families of diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, including some sites that served predominantly Spanish-speaking families. Between one and 38 parents per site participated in the research. The 420 study participants ranged in age from 19 and 60 years, with a mean age of 33.6 (SD = 6.9). Their children had a mean age of 4.21 years (SD = 1.21). Most (93%) of the participants were parents, and the rest were other primary caregivers, such as aunt, foster parent, or grandparent. All participants are referred to hereafter as parents. As shown in Table 1, most of the adult participants were female, and among children there were equal numbers of girls and boys. Ethnicity of parents was predominantly European, Latin, and African American. Slightly over one-half of participants were married at the time of the study, and approximately one-third reported not having a partner. Mean years of parental education was 14.5 (SD = 3.6). The mean yearly family income was between $30,000 and $40,000, with income level one standard deviation below the mean in the $10,000 to $20,000 range and income level one standard deviation above the mean in the $60,000 to $100,000 range.


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TABLE 1 Demographic Characteristics of the Sample


Percentage of Participants Parent gender Female Male Child gender Female Male Parent ethnicity Latin American European American African American Asian American American Indian or Native American Mixed Other Marital status Married Single, never married Cohabitating Separated Divorced Widowed Remarried

89.3 10.7 49.9 50.1 29.8 28.8 27.9 3.8 0.5 7.0 2.2 56.6 22.9 7.7 7.0 4.6 0.7 0.5

Measures Measures were available in both English and Spanish. To create the Spanish version, a graduate student and a research assistant fluent in Spanish and English translated and back-translated item content. A total of 68 parents (16.2%) chose to complete questionnaires in Spanish rather than English. The administration packet included several instruments, and those relevant to this study were as follows: Demographics questionnaire. This form requested background information (e.g., gender, age, age of child, number of years of schooling completed, parenting status, marital status, and household income). Parents were asked to self-identify their ethnic group as one of the following: White or Caucasian, American Indian/Native American, Asian or Asian American, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Mixed, or Other. If participants chose the Other category, they were asked to write in their ethnicity. PQ (Budd et al., 2012). The original PQ is a 63-item instrument on which respondents rated the level of acceptability of a parent’s responses to his/her child’s behavior. Each item described a situation in which a parent (or parents) responds to a specific child behavior and included a child’s age (ranging from 0 to 11 years). The age and gender of the child as well as items referring to the gender of parent were balanced across items. All items from the PQ were included in the study, even though the sample included only parents of children ages 2–6, to replicate the entire set of items from the original PQ. The five rating choices were acceptable (5), somewhat acceptable (4), minimally acceptable (3), unacceptable (2), and do not understand (1). Budd et al. (2012) included a do not understand


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option in the initial development of the PQ with college students, and the authors chose to retain this response option in the current study to test how the items worked with parents. Responses of do not understand were treated as missing values. Usage of do not understand occurred with an average of 3.7% of the responses per item. Each item loaded to one of three factors: physical discipline (PD), supportive feedback (SF), and critical feedback (CF). Sample PD items are, “The parents spank their 5-yearold child with their hand on the child’s rear end when the child misbehaves.” and “Each time their 9-year-old daughter uses a vulgar or obscene word, the parents place spicy sauce on her tongue.” Sample SF items are, “The parents of an 8-year-old boy give him a small amount of money each week for helping with household chores.” and “A 6-yearold girl makes her bed without her parents’ help. In response, the parents tell her what a ‘big girl’ she is, without mentioning the mistakes (e.g., the sheets are crooked and pillow on the floor).” Sample CF items are, “When a 2-year-old boy gets up in the middle of the night, his parents tell him to go back to bed. After he continues to bother them, they tell him they won’t love him anymore if he doesn’t leave them alone.” and “An 11-yearold girl admits to her parents that she is attracted to girls rather than boys. In response, the parents tell her that she is disgusting and dirty.” Test–retest reliability coefficients for the three PQ factors when administered to college students were .80 (PD), .68 (SF), and .72 (CF); and internal consistency coefficients (Cronbach’s alphas) were .83 (PD), .91 (SF), and .93 (CF) (Budd et al., 2012). Cronbach’s alphas for the 63-item version of the PQ with the current sample were .83 (PD), .90 (SF), and .93 (CF). Attitudes toward parenting. To assess convergent and discriminant validity of the three PQ subscales, the 22-item attitudes toward parenting scale was administered. Budd and colleagues (2012) constructed this measure by combining in random order the standard items from three independent scales of constructs similar to the 3 PQ factors, including 5 items that constituted the attitudes toward spanking scale (Deater-Deckard et al., 2003), 6 items that constituted the positive parenting scale of the Alabama PQ (Shelton, Frick, & Wootton, 1996), and 11 items that constituted the psychological control scale (Olsen et al., 2002). Both the Alabama PQ and the psychological control scale were designed to assess the frequency with which parents engaged in specific behaviors. For the Budd et al. (2012) study as well as the current study, parents were instructed to rate each item by indicating how much they agreed or disagreed with it as a method or view of parenting. Items were rated on a 5-point scale, including strongly agree (5), agree (4), unsure or depends (3), disagree (2), and strongly disagree (1), which are the choices used by Deater-Deckard et al. (2003) in the attitudes toward spanking scale. Sample items from the three measures, respectively, include, “Spanking does not harm children,” “A parent hugs or kisses the child when he/she has done something well,” and “If the child hurts the parent’s feelings, the parent stops talking to the child until he/she pleased the parent again.” Cronbach’s alphas for the three subscales when administered to college students ranged from .84 to .92 (Budd et al., 2012). In the current study, the internal consistency for the attitudes toward spanking (a = .86), positive parenting (a = .71), and psychological control (a = .75) subscales were adequate. Procedures A graduate research assistant contacted directors of preschool programs by phone to describe the study and ask if research personnel could visit the site and distribute



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questionnaires to parents. Participating organizations signed a memorandum of support explaining the relationship of the organization as a research site. Researchers arranged a time and date when parents were likely to be at the site, often at drop-off and pick-up times. Before recruiting parents at each site, researchers distributed flyers describing the study and announcing when the researchers would come to speak with parents about the study and distribute questionnaires. Trained graduate and undergraduate research assistants visited sites to administer questionnaires, answer questions, and pick up completed packets. Two to four research assistants went to each site to speak with parents about the study. Researchers approached parents and spoke with them individually to ensure adequate attention and protection of confidentiality. They informed parents that their information would be kept confidential and that they could decline to answer questions they did not feel comfortable answering. Parents who agreed to participate were given a packet including all measures. Research assistants reviewed and explained the consent form and questionnaires to assure parents’ understanding, and they informed parents how to return the questionnaires, either by bringing them back in a sealed envelope to the site or by mailing the questionnaires. Parents who preferred the latter method were provided with envelopes and stamps. Upon returning the completed questionnaires, parents received a $5 gift card for their participation.

RESULTS A principal components analysis (PCA) was first conducted to reduce redundant items from the scale with the current parent sample and to examine the factor structure, which was also cross-examined using principle axis factoring (PAF). PCA is recommended when a main purpose of the factor analysis is item reduction (Pett, Lackey, & Sullivan, 2003). PQ responses of do not understand on an item and skipped items were treated as missing values using pairwise deletion. An unrotated PCA was conducted first to assess whether the dataset was appropriate for factor analysis. The tests of factorability suggested that the dataset was appropriate for factor analysis. Barlett’s test of sphericity indicated that the matrix could be factored, χ 2 (1,891) = 6,962.08, p < .001, the Kaiser– Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy (.66) indicated that the shared common variance between the items was acceptable, and most of the individual measures of sampling adequacy values were above .50, indicating moderate common variance between items. Three items had individual measures of sampling adequacy values below .50 and were excluded from the analysis. The variance explained by each factor and the scree plot both suggested a three-factor structure. Because the factors were not expected to be unrelated, a common oblique rotation method, Promax rotation, was then used to increase the interpretability of the three factors. Items loading above |.40| on the structure matrix were retained. Through this iterative process, 30 additional items were deleted and 30 items were kept. Most of the individual measures of sampling adequacy values for the remaining 30 items were above .60, indicating adequate common variance between items. A PAF with Promax rotation was also run with the 30 items retained from the PCA to further validate the factor structure focusing on the interrelations of items instead of the item reduction. The results revealed a very similar factor structure, and the three-factor structure held.

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TABLE 2 Results of Principal Components Analysis on the Parenting Questionnaire (PQ) Factor Correlations r PQ Factor Physical discipline (PD; 11 items) Supportive feedback (SF; 10 items) Critical feedback (CF; 9 items) Total variance

% Variance R2

Structure Factor Loadings

CF

SF

13.82 12.64 7.95 34.41

.44–.68 .47–.64 .46–.65

.18 −.18

.08


Note. Both principal components analysis (PCA), shown above, and principal axis factoring (PAF) results were very similar.

The results of the PCA are displayed in Table 2. The three factors, physical discipline (PD), supportive feedback (SF), and critical feedback (CF), had internal consistencies of .77, .73, and .69, respectively, that accounted for a moderate amount of total variance. PD was positively correlated with CF (r = .18) and almost uncorrelated with SF (r = .08), and CF and SF were negatively correlated (r = −.18). Individual items loading above |.40| are listed in Table 3. All items except one (item 10, which originally loaded on CF) loaded onto the same factor as in Budd et al.’s (2012) initial study. Pearson correlations between the 30-item and 63-item versions of the PQ showed that the factors were highly correlated, rs = .99 (PD), .89 (SF), and .84 (CF). Correlations between the PQ factors and independent scales of constructs similar to the PQ factors were examined to assess convergent and discriminant validity. Table 4 shows that Pearson correlations between the independent scales and the PQ factors ranged between .40 and .56 for pairs that were hypothesized to be related to one another and between −.23 and .30 for other pairs. Comparisons using Fisher’s z showed significantly higher correlations for hypothesized pairs than other pairs (ps < .05). Due to the limited sample size, it was not possible to examine the PQ’s factor structure and measurement invariance across ethnic groups. However, we examined relations between the PQ factors and other participant demographics via correlations. PD was significantly correlated with parent age only, r = −.12, p < .05. SF was significantly correlated with parents’ years of schooling, r = .33, p < .001, and family income, r = .36, p < .001. CF was significantly correlated with years of schooling, r = −.11, p < .05, and family income, r = −.18, p < .001. There was a significant difference found for parent relationship status with the PD factor only, F (6,408) = 2.77, p = .01. Tukey post-hoc tests found that single, never married participants endorsed significantly more positive attitudes toward PD than married participants. Correlations between other demographic variables including parent gender, child gender, and child age and the PQ factors were non-significant. In addition, there were no significant differences on PQ factor scores based on parent gender or on parenting status (parent versus other primary caregiver). To determine if there were any differences between the Spanish-language and English-language Hispanic/Latino participants on the PQ factors, the authors conducted three ANCOVAs with income and education entered as covariates. There was a marginally significant difference found for SF, F (1,111) = 3.38, p = .07, where English-language parents had a slightly higher mean (M = 4.48, SD = 0.36) than Spanish-language parents (M = 4.23, SD = 0.37). There were no significant differences found for the PD and CF factors.


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TABLE 3 Parenting Questionnaire (PQ) Items Structure Matrix Factor


Items by Factor Physical discipline (PD) 1. The parents spank their 5-year-old child with their hand on the child’s rear end when the child misbehaves. 2. Each time their 9-year-old daughter uses a vulgar or obscene word, the parents place spicy sauce on her tongue. 3. The parents of a 7-year-old boy spank him on the buttocks with a belt when he misbehaves. 4. A 2-year-old boy keeps pinching his parent, so the parent pinches the boy’s arm back. 5. The parents make an 8-year-old girl crouch in the same position for 5 minutes as a consequence for talking back. 6. The parents of an 8-year-old boy wash his mouth with soap (place soap in his mouth) when he uses obscene words. 7. The parents of a 10-year-old boy make him sit on his hands for 10 minutes when he keeps flipping his pencil around instead of doing his homework. 8. When their 1-year-old child throws food on the floor, the parents slap the child’s hand. 9. A 9-year-old boy is supposed to be doing his homework but is reading a magazine. When his parents find him with the magazine, they take it away from him and pull on his ears. 10. A 5-year-old girl throws toys at her parent. When she won’t stop, her parent throws the toys back at her. 11. When the parents of a 10-year-old girl learn that she has been lying to them about where she goes after school, they slap her on the face, leaving a red mark. Supportive Feedback (SF) 12. The parents of an 8-year-old boy give him a small amount of money each week for helping with household chores. 13. A 6-year-old girl makes her bed without her parents’ help. In response, the parents tell her what a “big girl” she is, without mentioning the mistakes (e.g., the sheets are crooked and pillow on the floor). 14. The parents of a 7-year-old boy have a chart of three tasks (such as taking a bath without arguing) that he is expected to do. At the end of each week, they pay him 10 cents for each task completed. 15. The parents of a 5-year-old boy hug him after leaving a parent–teacher conference where they received a positive behavior report regarding their son. 16. The parents of a 1-year-old boy let him feed himself when he wants to with his hands or a spoon, even though he often makes a mess. 17. A 10-year-old girl is upset after she loses a competition. Her parents tell her they are very proud of her for trying. 18. At home, the father of a 9-year-old girl calls her by an affectionate nickname (such as “Sweetie”). 19. A 10-year-old boy is 2 hours late coming home from a friend’s house, so his parents tell him he is not allowed to go out for recreational activities for a week. 20. An 11-year-old boy has had problems with talking out and fighting in school. His parent takes him for a special activity after a week of no disciplinary reports from school. 21. As part of a toilet training program, the parents of a 2-year-old child give a small prize (such as a piece of candy or matchbox car) each time the child successfully uses the toilet.

PD

SF

CF

.68 .65 .62 .58 .57 .55 .52 .50 .49

.48 .44

.64 .64

.60

.59 .59 .58 .55 .49 .47

.47

(Continued)

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TABLE 3 (Continued) Factor


Items by Factor

PD

Critical feedback (CF) 22. When a 2-year-old boy gets up in the middle of the night, his parents tell him to go back to bed. After he continues to bother them, they tell him they won’t love him anymore if he doesn’t leave them alone. 23. An 11-year-old girl admits to her parents that she is attracted to girls rather than boys. In response, the parents tell her that she is disgusting and dirty. 24. The parents of an 8-year-old boy forget their son’s birthday. When he reminds them, they tell him that birthdays are for babies. 25. The parents of a 6-year-old child call the child an “idiot” for forgetting to flush the toilet. 26. An 11-year-old boy forgets repeatedly to take out the trash. His parents threaten to give him away the next time he does not do his chores. 27. A 7-year-old girl takes growth hormones on a doctor’s recommendation. Her parents tell her not to talk about this with anybody because normal kids don’t have to take growth hormones. 28. An 11-year-old girl who is left-handed tells her parents that her teacher cannot read her handwriting. The parents tell her that left-handed people cannot write as well as right-handed people. 29. The parents of a 6-year-old girl make her leave her clothes on after she wets herself in public, even when a change of clothing is available. 30. A 3-year-old boy soils his pants, and his parents smell the odor. They call him “stinky pants.”

SF

CF .65

.64 .62 .58 .55 .55

.51

.51 .42

.46

Note. Factor labels are PD (physical discipline), SF (supportive feedback), and CF (critical feedback). Factor loadings less than .40 were suppressed from reporting.

TABLE 4 Convergent and Discriminant Validity for 30-Item Parenting Questionnaire (PQ) Correlation with Validity Scales r (n)

PQ Factor Physical discipline (PD) Supportive feedback (SF) Critical feedback (CF)

Attitudes toward Spanking

Positive Parenting

Psychological Control

.56∗∗ (417) −.12∗∗ (417) .30∗∗ (415)

.03 (417) .44∗∗ (417) −.23∗∗ (415)

.27∗∗ (417) −.22∗ (417) .40∗∗ (415)

Note. Underlined correlations reflect hypothesized positive relations between factors and validity scales. ∗ p < .05. ∗∗ p < .01.

DISCUSSION This study examined the feasibility and validity of the PQ, a measure of childrearing attitudes, with a sample of parents of young children. Given the dearth of psychometrically validated parental attitude measures, the findings provide support for the PQ’s potential to fill a void in attitude assessment methodology by contributing an attitudinal measure that assesses both positive and negative parenting constructs. The PQ had previously



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been developed and tested using a sample of college students (Budd et al., 2012), and the current study demonstrated the shortened measure retained the same factor structure, accounted for a moderate amount of total variance, and had adequate reliability with parents of young children. Assessment of convergent and discriminative validity showed a pattern of correlations between independent scales and PQ factors consistent with hypothesized expectations. Together, the findings suggest that the PQ is a conceptually and methodologically sound instrument for assessing parental attitudes across a range of childrearing practices associated in the literature with differential child outcomes. The current study differs from the original PQ study (Budd et al., 2012) in that the initial research involved college participants, most of whom were not parents, whereas the current parent sample reported on the acceptability of parenting practices from their viewpoint as current parents. In addition, the demographics (e.g., ethnic and family background, social role, and social class) of the college student sample may have differed from the demographics of the parent sample. The fact that the present research with parents replicated the PQ’s factor structure and convergent and discriminant validity findings with college students adds psychometric support for the PQ. Further research will be needed to determine how differing sample characteristics affect respondents’ ratings on the PQ. The study sample consisted of parents of diverse ethnic backgrounds living in a large urban community. Spanish-language participants were included, and marginally significant differences were found when comparing the Spanish- and English-language Latino participants on supportive feedback, with less positive attitudes toward supportive feedback for the Spanish-language group. Acculturation may help explain this finding, as the supportive feedback subscale represents responsive, authoritative parenting practices in line with the majority culture, and prior research has found that Latino parents tend to have a more authoritarian style that emphasizes respect and obedience (Fontes, 2002; Harwood, Schoelmerich, Ventura-Cook, Schulze, & Wilson, 1996). As Latino parents acculturate, they may adopt more positive attitudes toward authoritative parenting practices (Calzada, Huang, Anicama, Fernandez, & Brotman, 2012). Future research should examine whether the PQ factors differ by variables associated with language selection, such as nativity, level of second language skills, and level of acculturation. Some limitations of the current research should be kept in mind. Unfortunately, the current sample was not large enough to investigate the effect of ethnicity on PQ factors. It will be important to examine whether the PQ factor structure or measurement is equivalent across ethnic groups to make cross-group comparisons. Numerous studies have documented differences in attitudes about discipline or control as a function of respondents’ background, environment, or experience (Bornstein & Lansford, 2009; Bornstein et al., 2011; Kotchick & Forehand, 2002). Factors such as ethnic or cultural background (Flynn, 1994, 1998; Jambunathan et al., 2000; Lorber, O’Leary, & Smith Slep, 2011) and socioeconomic status (Luster, Rhoades, & Haas, 1989; Pinderhughes, Dodge, Bates, Pettit, & Zelli, 2000) have been associated with differing attitudes toward corporal punishment. Parenting practices considered harsh in some cultures are viewed as normative in others (Collier, McClure, Collier, Otto, & Polloi, 1999; Hong & Hong, 1991). Furthermore, although the authors found no differences in PQ factor scores on the basis of parent gender or parenting status, the small number of male participants and non-parent primary caregivers may have limited the ability to detect group differences


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in parenting attitudes. Gender differences will be important to investigate in future research due to the gender differences in parenting attitudes found in some parent attitude research (Bornstein et al., 2011; Flynn, 1998; Lansford et al., 2011). Little is known about the possible effects of parenting status on childrearing attitudes. This topic merits investigation given the changing nature of family composition and living arrangements in American families over time, with proportionally fewer traditional, married couple households and a greater proportion of other family household arrangements (Vespa, Lewis, & Kreider, 2013). The current study included parents of children from ages 2–6; however, it will be important to examine the validity of the PQ with parents of children across the entire age range (0–11 years) of items included in the measure. Additionally, studies have shown the importance of considering parenting behavior along with parenting attitudes/beliefs when examining child behavior and correlates of child maladjustment (Barnett et al., 2010; Fung & Lau, 2009; Lau et al., 2006). The lack of validation measures with an informant independent of the parent is a weakness of this study. In the absence of such information, the discriminant validity tests showing relatively higher correlations between pairs of PQ subscales and independent scales measuring similar constructs than between other pairs help to mitigate this concern. Finally, lacking the examination of the predictive validity of the PQ with the measures of child behavior and adjustment limited the contributions of this study. Despite these limitations, this study addresses an acknowledged gap in the parenting literature by offering additional psychometric support for the PQ as a measure of parenting attitudes (Hurley et al., 2013). Through reducing the number of items on the PQ and confirming the factor structure with parents of young children, the current study provides further evidence that the PQ is a feasible, valid measure to use in studying parenting attitudes. In subsequent studies, it would be useful to examine the extent to which social desirability bias relates to parent responses on the PQ.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE, APPLICATION, AND POLICY Considering the importance of childrearing attitudes in clinical practice, another direction for future research is to explore the PQ’s potential as a resource for identifying at-risk parents and for evaluating attitude change following clinical or psychoeducational interventions. Whereas the critical feedback scale had low acceptance ratings in this community sample, research suggests that parents at risk for maltreatment or those with identified abuse or neglect endorse more punitive and controlling parenting attitudes than other parents (e.g., Corral-Verdugo et al., 1995; Holden et al., 1995; Thompson et al., 2003). Thus, it would be useful to determine the PQ’s ability to differentiate parents identified as at-risk from non-identified parents. Parents have considerable influence on children’s development, and examining attitudes associated with both positive and maladaptive parenting behaviors may help to inform policy and intervention efforts to strengthen positive parent–child relationships and prevent child maltreatment (Yasui & Dishion, 2007; Yoshikawa & Currie, 2011). Findings of the current study support the use of the shortened version of the PQ as a one of few psychometrically validated measures for assessing parent attitudes about childrearing. The PQ assesses one positive and two negative parenting domains that frequently have been associated with differing child outcomes, and thus it provides



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potentially useful information related to both adaptive and maladaptive parenting. In practice, the PQ could be applied to gather initial information about childrearing attitudes or to compare parent attitudes before and after exposure to psychoeducation or therapy. Additionally, the PQ may be useful in identifying specific areas of change regarding parenting practices. For example, for parents scoring low on the supportive feedback scale, intervention may be centered on helping them to recognize the value of positive, supportive parent–child communication and increasing their knowledge of forms of positive interaction that are culturally acceptable to them, with the goals of increasing parents’ acceptance and use of positive relationship strategies. With further research, the PQ may be found useful as one means for identifying parents at risk of engaging in negative or harmful parenting practices. Pending investigation of the PQ’s measurement equivalence across differing ethnic and cultural groups, the measure may be applicable for use in cross-cultural research. ADDRESSES AND AFFILIATIONS Karen S. Budd, Department of Psychology, DePaul University, 2219 N. Kenmore Ave., Chicago, IL 60614, USA. E-mail: [email protected]. Christina M. Danko, Yan Li, and Silvia Henriquez are also at DePaul University. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors sincerely thank the participating families and early childhood sites for their cooperation with this project. FUNDING This project was supported in part by a grant from the DePaul University Research Council to the first author. REFERENCES Acevedo, M. C. (2000). The role of acculturation in explaining ethnic differences in the prenatal health-risk behaviors, mental health and parenting beliefs of Mexican American and European American at-risk women. Child Abuse & Neglect, 24, 111–127. doi:10.1016/S0145-2134(99)00121-0 Allport, G. W. (1935). Attitudes. In C. Murchison (Ed.), Handbook of social psychology (pp. 798–844). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press. Armistead, L., Forehand, R., Brody, G., & Maguen, S. (2002). Parenting and child psychosocial adjustment in single-parent African American families: Is community context important? Behavior Therapy, 33, 361–375. doi:10.1016/S0005-7894(02)80033-8 Aucoin, K. J., Frick, P. J., & Bodin, S. D. (2006). Corporal punishment and child adjustment. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 27, 527–541. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2006.08.001 Barber, B. K. (1996). Parental psychological control: Revisiting a neglected construct. Child Development, 67, 3296–3319. doi:10.2307/1131780 Barnett, M. A., Shanahan, L., Deng, M., Haskett, M. E., & Cox, M. J. (2010). Independent and interactive contributions of parenting behaviors and beliefs in the prediction of early childhood behavior problems. Parenting: Science and Practice, 10, 43–59. doi:10.1080/15295190903014604


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