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Abstract:
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Researchers have developed the concept of parenting styles to describe the
interaction between parents and their children during the socialization process. Much of the research on parenting style has been based on Baumrind’s (1966) three distinct styles; authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive. Several researchers, including Baumrind,
have suggested that the permissive style is in fact two distinct types of parenting styles, i.e., permissive-indulgent and permissive-indifferent (sometimes referred to as permissive-rejecting and/or permissive-neglectful and currently uninvolved parents).
The scale most often designed to measure perceived parenting styles is based on
three parenting styles, although it has long been accepted that there are indeed four
prototypes based on Baumrind’s model. Several factors have been identified and
promoted as separating or distinguishing the different parenting styles. The major factors
tend to be whether or not the parent is high or low in the following behaviors: 1) warmth
and nurturing; 2) maturity demands; 3) control of child’s behavior; and 4) communication between parent and child (the extent to which the child’s opinion is sought and listened).
Based on these four behaviors and whether or not a parent was high or low on each, the
Parenting Style Scale (PSS) was designed to assess consistency of parenting over
developmental age as well as parenting styles using the notion of four as opposed to three parenting styles.
This study attempted to create and assess a new measure to evaluate the consistency of perceived parenting over time using five ages in development. The measure was also based on four parenting styles, authoritarian, authoritative, permissiveindulgent and permissive-indifferent or neglect, instead of three authoritarian, authoritative and permissive. Two parent-child scenarios were developed for the ages 4, 7, 10, 13 and 16. The new measure was developed using a 5 point Likert and forced choice response format asking the participant to select whether or not their parent responded to a child behavior from All of the Time = 5 to Never = 1. After responding to all of the scenarios for a particular age the respondent was then asked to pick the response which best matched the manner in which they remembered their parent may have responded.
The scenarios were developed from a review of the literature on parent-child
interactions in high and low degrees of warmth, nurturing, communication, demand for
maturity and control of the child’s behavior. In addition, parenting practices around age appropriate socialization issues were the basis of each of the scenarios
In this study the PSS was correlated with two other measures. Five hypotheses
regarding consistency over age, validity and reliability were posed. The Parental
Authority Questionnaire (Buri, 1991), based on three parenting styles was employed to
examine convergent validity, while discriminate validity was obtained through the Beck Depression Inventory-II (Beck, 1996). Reliability was assessed using item analysis reliability coefficient alpha and split-half analyses.
Results with 62 participants, 39 females and 23 males were employed to analyze
consistency, validity and reliability. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and Cronbach’s Alphas were employed to analyze the data. These results revealed a strong consistency of reported parenting style across the five ages for these participants. The correlations between all of the ages except four and sixteen were significant and positive.
The R2 values ranged from R2 .40 to R2 .03. The correlation between four and sixteen
resulted in the lowest predictability. Good reliability Cronbach’s Alpha of (.78) and
Guttman split half reliability .85 were found for the new PSS but questionable validity was obtained. It was concluded that further testing is needed. |
