Selecting Parenting Measures for Assessing Family-Based Prevention Interventions

The metaconstruct of parenting covers a wide variety of more narrowly defined constructs, including parenting practices, parenting style (see Darling and Steinberg 1993), and parental social cognitions. Parenting practices refer to sets of specific parenting behaviors that parents are observed to do, report that they do, or say they would do in interactions with their own children. They vary by specific content (e.g., praising the child, checking the child’s homework on a regular basis) and socialization goals (e.g., cooperation with family members, academic achievement). Parenting style refers to the more global context in which parenting practices are implemented, as opposed to actions that are domain specific. Parenting style is thought to moderate the effectiveness of parenting practices. Parental social cognitions refer to parents’ attitudes, values, and beliefs concerning parenting. The focus of this chapter is on parenting practices (see Liddle and Rowe, this volume, which focuses on measures of family functioning).