Abstract
BackgroundThe Parental Bonding Instrument, present self-report version, (PBI-PCh) includes three scales, Warmth, Protectiveness and Authoritarianism, which describe three dimensions of current parenting. The purposes of this study were to (1) evaluate the true and observed stability of these parenting dimensions related to older children, (2) explore the distribution of individual-level change across nine months and (3) test potential parental predictors of parenting instability.MethodsQuestionnaires were distributed to school-based samples of community parents of both genders (n = 150) twice, nine months apart. These questionnaires measured parenting, parental personality and emotional symptoms.ResultsBased on 1) stability correlations, 2) true stability estimates from structural equation modeling (SEM) and 3) distribution of individual-level change, Warmth appeared rather stable, although not as stable as personality traits. Protectiveness was moderately stable, whereas Authoritarianism was the least stable parenting dimension among community parents. The differences in stability between the three dimensions were consistent in both estimated true stability and observed stability. Most of the instability in Warmth originated from a minority of parents with personality, childhood care characteristics and lower current parenting warmth. For the Protectiveness dimension, instability was associated with higher Protectiveness scores.ConclusionsTrue instability with all three self-reported parenting dimensions can occur across nine months in a community sample related to older children (7-15), but it may occur with varying degrees among dimensions and subpopulations. The highest stability was found for the Warmth parenting dimension, but a subgroup of "unstably cold" parents could be identified. Stability needs to be taken into account when interpreting longitudinal research on parenting and when planning and evaluating parenting interventions in research and clinical practice.
Highlights
The Parental Bonding Instrument, present self-report version, (PBI-PCh) includes three scales, Warmth, Protectiveness and Authoritarianism, which describe three dimensions of current parenting
Observed stability correlations r and true stability estimates rSEM for all scales across nine months are reported in Table 1 together with the three z-based distributional characteristics of individual-level stability (M| Δ|z, P|Δ|>1z, P|Δ|
Parenting Bonding Instrument (PBI)-PCh Stability Indicators As shown in Table 1 and illustrated by Figure 2 and 3 the stability of the three parenting dimension scales was consistently ranked in the same order regardless of which indicators were used
Summary
The Parental Bonding Instrument, present self-report version, (PBI-PCh) includes three scales, Warmth, Protectiveness and Authoritarianism, which describe three dimensions of current parenting. Parenting is a complex aggregation of everyday parental behaviors, cognitions, emotions, attitudes and values under multiple influences, influenced by transactions across time between parental, child and contextual factors [1,2,3]. This implies influence by both stable and variable sources, which is reflected in the conclusions of the only review or meta-analysis on parenting stability we have found, concluding that “... Knowledge about the stability and change in parenting across months in the population is important general knowledge This information is imperative when examining change or differences in parenting related to selected non-ordinary conditions, such as lifestage changes, dramatic events, illness, treatment processes, and importantly, clinical trials. Changes in parenting observed under these types of conditions may in part result from the natural instability of parenting rather than the influence of those conditions
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