Measuring adolescents

Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa Jul-Set 2014, Vol. 30 n. 3, pp. 251-258 Measuring Adolescents’ Perceptions of Parenting Style During Childhood: Psychometric Properties of the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire Semira Tagliabue1 Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Brescia Maria Giulia Olivari Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano Dario Bacchini Gaetana Affuso Sevonda Università degli Studi di Napoli Emanuela Confalonieri Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano ABSTRACT - The paper analyzes the psychometric properties of the G1 version of the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire, a self-report instrument designed to investigate how adolescents or adults were parented during childhood. The sample included 1451 Italian adolescents in high school. Three studies tested the scale’s structure, invariance, and convergent validity. The first found slightly acceptable fit indexes for a 40-item scale measuring three factors (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive styles); the factors presented good reliability (ρc .62-.96). Multigroup confirmative analyses found factor loadings invariant in the father version, whereas 12 items resulted not invariant in the mother version (second study). Good convergent validity was found with the Parental Bonding Index and the Parental Monitoring Scale (third study). Discussion of results is provided within the parenting styles literature. Keywords: parenting styles, adolescents, psychometric properties, family Medindo a Percepção dos Estilos Parentais de Adolescentes Durante a Infância: As Propriedades Psicométricas do Estilo Parental e do Questionário de Dimensões RESUMO - O presente trabalho analisa as propriedades psicométricas da versão G1 do Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (Questionário de Estilo e Dimensões de Parentalidade), um instrumento de autorrelato projetado para investigar retrospectivamente como adolescentes ou adultos foram criados durante a infância. A amostra incluiu 1451 adolescentes italianos cursando o ensino médio. Três estudos foram apresentados, nos quais a estrutura da escala, sua invariância, e sua validade convergente são testadas. O primeiro estudo encontrou índices ligeiramente aceitáveis para uma escala de 40 itens medindo três fatores (estilos autoritativo, autoritário, permissivo); os fatores apresentaram uma boa confiabilidade (ρcrange .62.96). Análises confirmativas multigrupo descobriram que as cargas de fatores foram invariantes, na versão do pai, enquanto que doze itens resultaram não invariantes na versão da mãe. Uma boa validade convergente foi encontrada com Parental Bonding Index, e Parental Monitoring Scale no terceiro estudo. A discussão dos resultados é provida na literatura de estilos parentais. Palavras-chave: estilos parentais, adolescentes, propriedades psicométricas, família Socio-psychological research on family relationships has emphasized parents’ role in influencing children and adolescents’ emotional and social development. Parenting style during childhood has short-term and long-term effects on parent-child relationship (Darling & Steinberg, 1993). According to Baumrind (1971, 1989) and Maccoby and Martin (1983), parenting styles arise from the crossing of two different dimensions: demandingness and responsiveness. Demandingness is “the claims parents make on children to become integrated into the family whole, by their maturity demands, supervision, disciplinary efforts, and willingness to confront the child who disobeys” (Baumrind, 1991, pp. 61-62). Responsiveness is “the extent to which parents intentionally foster individuality, self-regulation, and selfassertion by being attuned, supportive, and acquiescent to 1 Endereço para correspondência: Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica of Brescia. Via Trieste, 17, 25121, Brescia, Italy. E-mail: children’s special needs and demands” (Baumrind, 1991, p. 62). Several studies classify parenting into three styles (e.g., Baumrind, 1971; Darling & Steinberg, 1993). Authoritarian parents are highly demanding and directive, but not responsive. Their child-rearing pattern combines high control and strict and coercive discipline with aggressive behaviors. These parents expect orders to be obeyed without explanation and offer a low level of trust and engagement toward the child. Authoritative parents are demanding and responsive. Their discipline is controlling but not restrictive, oriented to the child’s involvement in the family’s life. They offer trust, support, control, and open communication toward the children. Permissive parents are highly responsive, but not demanding. Their child-rearing pattern combines nondemanding behavior, low parental control, and low levels of disciplinary action. They offer warm acceptance and childcentered orientation. 251 S Tagliabue et al. A recent review (Olivari, Tagliabue, & Confalonieri, 2013), found authoritative parenting style positively associated with adaptive behaviors and psychological adjustment and negatively associated with maladaptive behaviors and psychological maladjustment. Other reviews agreed (Kawabata, Alink, Tseng, van IJzendoorn, & Crick, 2011; Newman, Harrison, Dashiff, & Davies, 2008; Piko & Balázs, 2012), suggesting the protective role authoritative parenting plays in adolescence. The increasing investigation of parenting styles and their links with developmental outcomes in childhood and adolescence has been accompanied by a rise in selfreport instruments measuring parenting styles (Perlmutter, Touliatos, & Holden, 2001; Touliatos, Perlmutter, Strauss, & Holden, 2001; Weber, Salvador, & Brandenburg, 2006, 2009). Among them, Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, and Hart (1995) created a widely used instrument, the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ). International and cross-cultural studies used this instrument increasingly in the last three years, as showed in Olivari and colleagues (2013). In 2000, Chipman, Olsen, Klein, Hart, and Robinson proposed a new adaptation of PSDQ and investigated how the young adults were parented by their mothers and fathers during their childhood. In 2001, Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, and Hart presented the PSDQ scale and the G1 version in the Handbook of Family Measurement Technique. This scale was designed to investigate how adolescents or adults were parented during childhood and was used in some recent studies (Confalonieri et al., 2010; O’Brien, 2010; Tagliabue et al., submitted), even though there is not to date a proper psychometric analysis of the PSDQ. The aim of the present paper is to test its psychometric properties in the Italian context, working on the full instrument and assessing its reliability through CFA. The samples of the previous studies were quite small, whereas the present study uses a large sample. It tests two versions of the scale: one relating to fathers’ parenting styles and one relating to mothers’ parenting styles. The descriptive comparison of the two (...truncated)