Self-Report Measures of Parental Self-Efficacy: A Systematic Review of the Current Literature

Abstract

Parenting self-efficacy (PSE) describes a parent’s belief in their ability to perform the parenting role successfully. Higher levels of PSE have consistently been shown to be correlated with a wide range of parenting and child outcomes. Consequently, many parenting interventions aim to improve PSE. PSE measurement has typically been via self-report measures. However, the wide range of available measures has resulted in their limited use, inconsistent terminology and ambiguous theoretical grounding. The purpose of this systematic review was to examine the psychometric and administrative qualities of the available PSE measures and offer clarity to the terminology and the theory underpinning their use so that the future use of PSE measures can be appropriate. Eleven electronic databases were searched. Articles were included if they introduced a new measure or were psychometric evaluations of an available measure of PSE for parents of children (from infancy until 18 years of age). Thirty-four measures were identified and their psychometric and administrative qualities were examined. Overall, the quality of the available measures was varied. Whilst this review makes recommendations regarding PSE measures for parents of infants through to adolescents, some caution should be applied when choosing the most appropriate measure. The theoretical grounding of each measure was clarified so that appropriate measures can be chosen under the relevant circumstances. The implications of refinement of the available measures are discussed and further research into improving PSE measurement is identified.

Spanish version of the Parenting Sense of Competence scale: Evidence of reliability and validity

“…Despite its different theoretical origins, most recent studies have considered the PSOC as a measure of parenting self-efficacy from the perspective of Bandura's theory (Vance & Brando 2017;Wittkowski, Garrett, Calam, & Weisberg, 2017). This theory (Bandura, 1997) contemplates several levels of perception of self-efficacy, and the PSOC has been considered as a general-domain self-efficacy parenting questionnaire (Vance & Brando, 2017).…”

Parental Self‐Efficacy for Reducing the Risk of Adolescent Depression and Anxiety: Scale Development and Validation

“…A recent systematic review of PSE measures identified no measures of PSE that had been developed specifically for parents of adolescents (Wittkowski, Garrett, Calam, & Weisberg, 2017). However, this review excluded narrow-domain measures.…”

“…Most researchers select items based on a review of the literature, followed by evaluation by a panel of experts (e.g., Abidin, 1990;Ballenski & Cook, 1982;Dumka et al, 1996). A systematic review of measures of PSE found that of the 34 measures included, only 41.18% of studies used a factor analytic approach as part of their validation, and 20.59% reported no information on internal consistency (Wittkowski et al, 2017). Validation of the above-mentioned scale created by Ballenski and Cook (1982) was limited to establishing two-week test-retest reliability with a subsample of 23 mothers who participated in their study.…”

Modeling the relationships between practitioner capacity-building practices and the behavior and development of young children with disabilities and delays

“…Parenting efficacy was assessed in terms of parents' judgments of their abilities to organize and execute parenting roles and responsibilities to have intended or expected child behavior consequences (Wittkowski et al, 2017). Parenting efficacy beliefs were measured by the Parenting Experiences Scale (Trivette and Dunst, 2004), Personal Assessment of Control Scale (Boyd and Dunst, 1996), Confidence in Parenting Scale (Bailey et al, 2007), and investigator-developed measures.…”