Measuring dysfunctional parenting: Psychometrics of three versions of the Parenting Scale

Objective This study assessed the psychometric properties of three versions Parenting Scale (PS; original PS, 13-item version, and 10-item version) in European middle-income countries. Background The PS is one most frequently used questionnaires for measuring dysfunctional discipline strategies. Although its validity has been extensively investigated American samples, there are mixed results regarding recommended number items subscales, raising question replicability across Method Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MCFA) item response theory (IRT) were applied to N = 835 parents from North Macedonia, Moldova, Romania. Results All significantly correlated with parental- child-related variables. Confirmatory indicated best model fit configural partial metric invariance countries could be established this version. Item analyses also supported measure. Conclusions Our findings show that version performed better than both overall on country level. Reliability values somewhat lower reported studies United States. Implications constitutes a promising short measure assessing parenting researchers practitioners.