Abstract
Children’s freedom to navigate their environment independently is associated with greater physical activity and enhanced physical, social and emotional development. Parental fear is a recognized barrier to children’s independent mobility, however there are scant reliable tools to measure this fear. We report on the development and validation of two brief scales to assess parental fear, ‘Parental Fear’ (PF) and ‘Fear of Strangers’ (FoS). Specifically, we aimed to: confirm the construct validity of the scales; establish discriminant validity between PF, FoS and parents’ mental health (as measured on the Kessler-6); assess the internal consistency and test–retest reliability of PF and FoS; and establish predictive validity with children’s independent mobility. Development was conducted in five steps: (1) item pool generation; (2) a development study; (3) a validation study in a statewide sample (Victoria, Australia) of parents of children (9–15 years, n = 1973); (4) a reliability assessment; and (5) an examination of predictive validity with respect to children’s independent mobility. Two brief, robust, and internally consistent measures were established (PF, four-items; FoS, five-items), which discriminated from parent’s mental health. Both measures had strong internal consistency and temporal stability. Predictive validity was established; parents who reported higher PF and FoS were less likely to allow their children to engage in a range of independent activities without an adult. These scales contribute novel valid tools for use in public health and intervention research aimed at reducing parental fear as a barrier to children’s independent mobility and resultant physical activity.
Highlights
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There are few valid measures of parents’ fear about children’s independent mobility.
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We developed and validated two new measures: Parental Fear and Fear of Strangers.
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These brief measures show strong psychometric properties and predictive validity.
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These novel measures are suitable for public health and intervention research.
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This study was funded by the VicHealth: the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (Participation and Equity for Health Grant, 2012–2015).
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All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of an institutional research committee (Parenting Research Centre Human Research Ethics Committee, Application No. 19, May, 2013; and Application No. 20, July 2013). This committee is properly constituted under the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research, and the study is compliant with these ethical standards.
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Cooklin, A.R., Giallo, R., Bennetts, S.K. et al. Parental Fear about Children’s Safety When Independently Mobile: Development and Validation of Two Measures. J Child Fam Stud 29, 2246–2256 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01712-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01712-6