Construction and validation of the ultra-short version of the Parenting Scale (PS-4)

Parenting behavior is a central determinant of childhood development and is thus deserving of more scientific attention. In the present article, we constructed an ultra-short scale for the assessment of parenting styles, the Parenting Scale 4 (PS-4). To this end, we analyzed large samples of parent-child dyads-one representative of the German general population (Sample 1), the other representative for the German federal state Lower Saxony (Sample 2). We applied an algorithm-based scale-shortening technique in Sample 1 and confirmed the resulting model in Sample 2, finding excellent model fit and-given the extreme brevity-acceptable reliability. Furthermore, we show that the model is invariant across parent and child genders. Correlations with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire remain virtually unchanged compared to a longer version of the Parenting Scale, which is evidence for the PS-4's validity. Overall, the PS-4 can be recommended for the assessment of parenting behavior, particularly in large-scale surveys with time constraints.