Refining the Measurement of Parenting

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Project Summary/Abstract Effective parenting is a critical component of healthy child development. Ineffective parenting skills have been implicated as contributing factors for childhood externalizing and internalizing symptoms, which may significantly disrupt children’s functioning and extend into adulthood. Effective tools to assess parenting and measure change in these domains over time will contribute to a more complete understanding of both normative and atypical developmental pathways. Thus, there is a need for parenting measures that are brief and low-cost, have strong psychometric properties and established norms, reduce social desirability biases, are culturally inclusive, and are sensitive to change. To address the need for a measure that meets these criteria, we have systematically developed the Knowledge of Effective Parenting Test (KEPT) over the past 10 years (K01MH093508; R21HD090145). In its current iteration, the KEPT is an online assessment for which parents/guardians answer questions in response to 15 brief vignettes of both common and challenging parenting scenarios. Developed for parents of children aged 5-12, the measure covers knowledge of parent- management skills known to be associated with childhood disruptive behavior disorders, including age- appropriate expectations, effective communication, planned-ignoring, rewards, consequences, attending to positive behavior, and praise. This proposed project will build on our previous work by accomplishing three new aims that will extend the utility and efficiency of the KEPT. Aim 1 is to develop new content for the Knowledge of Effective Parenting Test (KEPT) for domains of parenting that are associated with the development and maintenance of childhood internalizing symptoms. Aim 2 is to develop computer adaptive test (CAT) versions of the KEPT-Internalizing (KEPT-I) and KEPT-Externalizing (KEPT-E) that are calibrated in a nationally representative sample (N = 1,000). Aim 3 is to establish the reliability and validity of the KEPT-I and KEPT-E in a symptomatic sample (N = 200) and healthy controls (N = 100) over a 12-month interval. This measurement R01 will result in an expanded item pool for the KEPT with new content for domains of parenting that are associated with the development and maintenance of internalizing symptoms, along with CAT versions of the expanded test. This is important given the increasing rates of internalizing symptoms among school age children, and because these symptoms often co-occur with externalizing symptoms and are frequently underrecognized. The project has the potential to advance the way treatment developers operationalize and measure parenting knowledge and skills. This proposed project is consistent with NICHD’s mission to ensure “that all children have the chance to achieve their full potential for healthy and productive lives.”