ECPN poster contestant: Development of a Comprehensive Measure of Parenting Quality for Early Adolescence

Background: Research demonstrates that substance use initiation (SUI) before age 15 increases the risk of problematic use in adulthood. Accordingly, understanding factors that delay initiation are critical for preventing later dependence. One context that has received support in reducing adolescents’ SUI is parents. For example, parental monitoring, warmth, and control are key parenting domains that predict delayed SUI. Although each of these domains plays a critical role in shaping youths’ behavior, few comprehensive measures exist that capture multiple aspects of overall parenting quality with good reliability. The aim of this study was to develop a comprehensive and psychometrically sound measure of parenting quality that includes key constructs that may be omitted, such as parental knowledge and attitudes towards problem behaviors. Method: The sample included 387 families from a longitudinal study examining contextual influences on SUI. Exploratory factor analysis with maximum-likelihood as the extraction method and oblique rotation was conducted with the following parent-report measures: parental monitoring, child disclosure, parental solicitation, parental control, shared activities, parental involvement, time spent with the child, parental authority, smoking norms, alcohol norms, positive parenting, and curfew. Eigenvalues greater than 1 and Cattell’s Scree Test were the criteria used to determine the number of factors to retain. Correlations between retained factors and additional parent- and child-report parenting measures were also examined to assess convergent and discriminant validity. Results: The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO = 0.75) measure verified sampling adequacy. Two items, curfew and positive parenting, were removed due to low correlations (< 0.30) and low communalities (< 0.20) with other items. Selection criteria indicated a three-factor solution that accounted for 64% of the total variance. Factor one represented parental control (parental authority, alcohol and smoking norms). Factor two represented parental knowledge and affective relationships (parental monitoring and child disclosure). Factor three represented parent-child communication and involvement (shared activities, parental solicitation, time spent with the child, parental involvement, and parental control). Factor loadings were between 0.32 and 0.95 with no evidence of double-loading. The overall measure (α = 0.76) and all individual factors demonstrated good internal consistency (αs = 0.70 – 0.75). There was evidence for satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity. Conclusion: These findings support a psychometrically sound measure of parenting quality, which provides a more comprehensive assessment of the multiple facets comprising the parent-child domain.