Abstract
Parenting practices should be assessed and taken into account at an early age, since it is well documented that they are strongly related to children’s development. This study provides data on the psychometric properties of a Spanish version of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire for Preschool children (APQ-Pr). A community sample of 622 (310 boys and 312 girls) 3 year-old children and their parents, participated in the study. Data were obtained from parents’ reports and correspond to a semi-structured diagnostic interview and self-report questionnaires evaluating parenting and children’s psychological states. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a three-factor solution: positive parenting, inconsistent parenting and punitive parenting. These scales scores showed moderate to good internal consistence (omega values ranged from .54 to .86). Inconsistent parenting scores achieved the strongest associations with external measures of psychopathology, especially for externalizing and conduct problems, as well as for functional impairment, the poorest associations being for the positive parenting scores. Results support the validity of the Spanish APQ-Pr, which is potentially a useful measure for the study of parenting practices regarding preschool children and their relation to conduct problems.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Achenbach, T., & Rescorla, L. A. (2001). Manual for the ASEBA school-age and profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth and Families.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). DSM-IV-TR diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders text revised (4th ed.). Washington, DC: APA.
Angold, A., Messer, S. C., Stangl, D., Farmer, E. M. Z., Costello, E. J., & Burns, B. J. (1998). Perceived parental burden and service use for child and adolescent psychiatric disorders. American Journal of Public Health, 88(1), 75–80.
Barkley, R. A., Shelton, T. L., Crosswait, C., Moorehouse, M., Fletcher, K., Barrett, S., et al. (2002). Preschool children with disruptive behavior: Three-year outcome as a function of adaptive disability. Development and Psychopathology, 14(1), 45–67.
Burke, J. D., Pardini, D. A., & Loeber, R. (2008). Reciprocal relationships between parenting behavior and disruptive psychopathology from childhood through adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36(5), 679–692.
Chamberlain, P., & Patterson, G. R. (1995). Discipline and child compliance in parenting. In M. H. Bornstein & M. H. Bornstein (Eds.), Handbook of parenting, Vol. 4: Applied and practical parenting (pp. 205–225). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Chamberlain, P., Reid, J. B., Ray, J., Capaldi, D. M., & Fisher, P. (1997). Parent Inadequate Discipline PID). In T. A. Widiger, A. J. Frances, H. A. Pincus, R. Ross, M. B. First, & W. Davis (Eds.), DSM-IV source book (Vol. 3, pp. 569–629). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Chi, T. C., & Hinshaw, S. P. (2002). Mother-child relationships of children with ADHD: The role of maternal depressive symptoms and depression-related distortions. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30(4), 387–400.
Clerkin, S. M., Marks, D. J., Policaro, K. L., & Halperin, J. M. (2007). Psychometric properties of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire-Preschool Revision. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 36(1), 19–28.
Cunningham, C. E., & Boyle, M. H. (2002). Preschoolers at risk for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder: Family, parenting, and behavioral correlates. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30(6), 555–569.
Dadds, M. R. (1995). Families, children, and the development of dysfunction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Dadds, M. R., Maujean, A., & Fraser, J. A. (2003). Parenting and conduct problems in children: Australian data and psychometric properties of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire. Australian Psychologist, 38(3), 238–241.
Essau, C. A., Sasagawa, S., & Frick, P. J. (2006). Psychometric properties of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 15(5), 597–616.
Ezpeleta, L., de la Osa, N., Granero, R., Domènech, J. M., & Reich, W. (2011). The Diagnostic Interview for children and adolescents for parents of preschool and young children: Psychometric properties in the general population. Psychiatry Research, 190, 137–144.
Ezpeleta, L., Granero, R., de la Osa, N., Penelo, E. & Domènech, J. M. (in press). Psychometric properties of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire3–4 in 3-year-old preschoolers. Comprehensive Psychiatry. doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2012.07.009.
Feinfield, K. A., & Baker, B. L. (2004). Empirical support for a treatment program for families of young children with externalizing problems. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 33(1), 182–195.
Frick, P. J. (1991). The Alabama parenting questionnaire. Unpublished rating scale, University of Alabama.
Frick, P. J., Christian, R. E., & Wooton, J. M. (1999). Age trends in association between parenting practices and conduct problems. Behavior Modification, 23(1), 106–128.
Frick, P. J., Kimonis, E. R., Dandreaux, D. M., & Farell, J. M. (2003). The 4 year stability of psychopathic traits in non-referred youth. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 21(6), 713–736.
Frick, P. J., & McMahon, R. J. (2008). Child and adolescent conduct problems. In J. Hunsley, E. J. Mash, J. Hunsley, & E. J. Mash (Eds.), A guide to assessments that work (pp. 41–66). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Frick, P. J., & Silverthorn, P. (2001). Psychopathology in children. In P. B. Sutker, H. E. Adams, P. B. Sutker, & H. E. Adams (Eds.), Comprehensive handbook of psychopathology (3rd ed., pp. 881–920). New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Goodman, R. (1997). The strengths and difficulties questionnaire. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38, 581–586.
Hinshaw, S. P. (2002). Preadolescent girls with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: I. Background characteristics, comorbidity, cognitive and social functioning, and parenting practices. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70(5), 1086–1098.
Hollingshead, A. B. (1975). Four factor index of social status. Unpublished manuscript.
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1998). Fit indices in covariance structure analysis: Sensitivity to under-parameterized model misspecification. Psychological Methods, 3, 424–453.
International Test Commission (2010). International test commission guidelines for translating and adapting tests. [http://www.intestcom.org].
Jackson, D. L., Gillaspy, J. A., & Purc-Stephenson, R. (2009). Reporting practices in confirmatory factor analysis: An overview and some recommendations. Psychological Methods, 14, 6–23. doi:10.1037/a0014694.
Kleinbaum, D., & Klein, M. (2010). Logistic regression (3rd ed.). New York: Springer.
Lanza, H. I., & Drabick, D. A. G. (2011). Family routine moderates the relation between child impulsivity and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39(1), 83–94.
Lochman, J. E., & Wells, K. C. (2002). Contextual social-cognitive mediators and child outcome: A test of the theoretical model in the coping power program. Development and Psychopathology, 14(4), 945–967.
Loeber, R., & Farrington, D. P. (2000). Young children who commit crime: Epidemiology, developmental origins, risk factors, early interventions, and policy implications. Development and Psychopathology, 12(4), 737–762.
Marsh, H. W., Hau, K. T., & Wen, Z. (2004). In search of golden rules: comment on hypothesis-testing approaches to setting cutoff values for fit indexes and dangers in overgeneralizing Hu and Bentler’s (1999) findings. Structural Equation Modeling, 11, 320–341. doi:10.1207/s15328007sem1103_2.
McDonald, R. P. (1999). Test theory: A unified treatment. Hillsdale: Erlbaum.
Oxford, M., Cavell, T. A., & Hughes, J. N. (2003). Callous/unemotional traits moderate the relation between ineffective parenting and child externalizing problems: A partial replication and extension. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32(4), 577–585.
Patterson, G. R., & Reid, J. B. (1984). Social interactional processes within the family: The study of the moment-by-moment family transactions in which human social development is imbedded. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 5(3), 237–262.
Penelo, E., Viladrich, C., & Domènech, J. M. (2010). Perceived parental rearing style in childhood: Internal structure and concurrent validity on the Egna Minnen Beträffande Uppfostran–Child version in clinical settings. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 51, 434–442. doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2009.08.003.
Regalado, M., Sareen, H., Inkelas, M., Wissow, L. S., & Halfon, N. (2004). Parents’ discipline of young children: Results from the national survey of early childhood health. Pediatrics, 113(6), 1952–1958.
Reich, W., & Ezpeleta, L. (2009). Diagnostic interview for children and adolescents—version for parents of preschoolers (3–7 years). Unpublished rating scale, Division of Child Psychiatry, Schools of Medicine, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Shaffer, D., Gould, M. S., Brasic, J., Ambrosini, P., Fisher, P., & Bird, H. (1983). A children’s global assessment scale (CGAS). Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 1228–1231.
Shelton, K. K., Frick, P. J., & Wootton, J. (1996). Assessment of parenting practices in families of elementary school-age children. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 25(3), 317–329.
Sonuga-Barke, E., Auerbach, J., Campbell, S. B., Daley, D., & Thompson, M. (2005). Varieties of preschool hyperactivity: Multiple pathways from risk to disorder. Developmental Science, 8(2), 141–150.
Wells, K. C., Epstein, J. N., Hinshaw, S. P., Conners, C. K., Klaric, J., Abikoff, H. B., et al. (2000). Parenting and family stress treatment outcomes in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): An empirical analysis in the MTA study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 28(6), 543–553.
Yu, C. Y., & Muthén, B. O. (2002). Evaluation of model fit indices for latent variable models with categorical and continuous outcomes (technical report). Los Angeles: UCLA, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.
Acknowledgments
Funding was from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grant PSI2009-7542.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
de la Osa, N., Granero, R., Penelo, E. et al. Psychometric Properties of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire-Preschool Revision (APQ-Pr) in 3 Year-Old Spanish Preschoolers. J Child Fam Stud 23, 776–784 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9730-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9730-5