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Validation of Parenting Your Baby and Parenting Your Toddler and Associations with Engagement in Parenting Intervention

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Abstract

Infants and toddlers are dependent on supportive and nurturing parenting to promote optimal child development. Assessments of parenting can identify need for parenting intervention, however measures are needed that can predict whether parents reporting challenges will engage in intervention. We validated the Parenting Your Baby (PYB) and Parenting Your Toddler (PYT) parenting measures and examined associations with engagement in parenting intervention. Participants included 403 primary caregivers and their newborns from a multisite longitudinal randomized control trial of the Smart Beginnings (SB) parenting intervention across two urban cities. Caregivers completed the PYB (6 months) and PYT (18 and 24 months) and other self-report measures of parenting and infant and toddler temperament and social-emotional functioning for validation. Observed parenting (6, 18, and 24 months) was coded from observed caregiver-child interactions. Engagement in ongoing intervention (SB) was recorded across infancy and toddlerhood. Factor structure was adequate for the PYB and strong for the PYT. Both measures demonstrated reliability and validity across concurrent and future self-report and observed measures of parenting and caregiver-reported infant and toddler functioning. Parent-reported desire for change in parenting scores on the PYT at 18 months were associated with engagement in parenting intervention 18 through 30 months. The PYB and PYT are reliable and valid measures of the parenting of young children, though more work is needed on the factor structure of the PYB. An important direction for future research is to understand and support engagement in parenting intervention for those who report desire for change but do not engage.

Highlights

  • Parenting Your Baby and Parenting You Toddler are adequately valid and reliable self-reports of the parenting of infants and toddlers.

  • Parent-reported desire for change in parenting at 18 months predicted engagement in parenting intervention 18 to 30 months.

  • Work is needed to support engagement in intervention for those who report desire for change in parenting but do not engage.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01 HD076390). KLG-H was supported by a National Research Service Award from the Health Resources and Services Administration (T32 HP22240).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3414 5th Ave., CHOB 1st Floor, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Katherine L. Guyon-Harris

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Sennott Square, 3rd Floor 210 South Bouquet St, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA

    Johana Rosas, Luciano Dolcini-Catania, Anne Gill & Daniel S. Shaw

  3. Department of Pediatrics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, 550 1st Ave., New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Alan Mendelsohn

  4. New York University, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, 82 Washington Square E, New York, NY, 10003, USA

    Pamela Morris

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  1. Katherine L. Guyon-Harris
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Guyon-Harris, K.L., Rosas, J., Dolcini-Catania, L. et al. Validation of Parenting Your Baby and Parenting Your Toddler and Associations with Engagement in Parenting Intervention. J Child Fam Stud 32, 1789–1804 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02484-x

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