Development and Preliminary Psychometric Properties of a Parenting Quality Scale

Abstract

Parenting quality is one of the indicators of the parenting quality of a parent which might affect the learning achievement of their child. At present, no parenting quality scale exists that could completely measure parental involvement, parental engagement and parenting capacity. This research study is therefore aimed at developing a parenting quality scale and at verifying, in terms of psychometric properties, both the validity and reliability of the parenting quality scale. The research sample was 306 parents of government primary and secondary school students in Bangkok. The research findings were that the content validity of the parenting quality scale was at a good level (content validity ratio and content validity index > 0.5). The second-order factor analysis found that the construct validity of the parenting quality scale was valid according to the theory. The parenting quality scale measured 3 latent variables: parental involvement (home-based involvement, school-based involvement and home-school communication), parental engagement (warmth and sensitivity, support for child's emerging autonomy, active participation in learning) and parenting capacity (basic care, ensuring safety, emotional warmth, stimulation, guidance and boundaries, stability). In addition, it was found that the parenting quality scale had a high level of internal consistency, with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of between 0.79 and 0.91. The research results show that the parenting quality scale developed by the researchers is of good quality and can be authentically used to measure parenting quality.