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Confirmatory and Exploratory Factor Analyses of Parental Authority Questionnaire in Urban India

Journal of Child and Family Studies volume 22, pages 707–718 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

The present study examined the factor structure of a widely used measure of parenting style in three samples from Northwestern India. College Students (n = 195) completed Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ; Buri in J Pers Assess 57:110–119, 1991), and mothers of children attending high-school (n = 275), and middle-school (n = 145) completed its parent-report version Parental Authority Questionnaire-Revised (PAQ-R; Reitman et al. in J Psychopathol Behav Assess 24:119–127, 2002). Preliminary findings revealed that across three samples Cronbach’s alpha values ranged from poor to acceptable, with permissive parenting subscale of the PAQ/PAQ-R having the lowest value, whereas the authoritarian parenting had the highest value. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that none of the models achieved satisfactory fit (i.e., CFI > .90). Exploratory factor analysis revealed that a two factor structure (with first component consisting of authoritative and permissive items, and the second component consisting of authoritarian items) rendered Cronbach’s alpha in the acceptable range. Only PAQ/PAQ-R authoritarian scale was correlated with youth adjustment problems across all three samples, while findings concerning authoritative and permissive scales were mixed. The findings suggest that only PAQ/PAQ-R authoritarian scale is reliable and valid in urban, middle-class, educated families in India, and encourage researchers to develop culturally relevant measures of parenting for this population.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Miami University, 90 North Patterson Avenue, Oxford, OH, 45056, USA

    Vaishali V. Raval

  2. Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA

    Rose Marie Ward

  3. Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India

    Pratiksha H. Raval

  4. H. K. Arts College, Ahmedabad, India

    Shwetang S. Trivedi

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  1. Vaishali V. Raval
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  2. Rose Marie Ward
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  3. Pratiksha H. Raval
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  4. Shwetang S. Trivedi
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Correspondence to Vaishali V. Raval.

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Raval, V.V., Ward, R.M., Raval, P.H. et al. Confirmatory and Exploratory Factor Analyses of Parental Authority Questionnaire in Urban India. J Child Fam Stud 22, 707–718 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-012-9624-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-012-9624-y

Keywords

  • Parenting style
  • Factor analysis
  • Culture