Parenting and Conduct Problems in Children: Australian Data and Psychometric Properties of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire

Abstract

A wealth of research has shown links between parenting style and child behaviour, and the development of conduct problems in young children. Unfortunately, the most common and well-researched measures of parenting do not tap specific dimensions of parenting clearly related to risk for conduct problems in children. Recently, the development of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) appears to have overcome this problem. It has several subscales that were designed to correspond to empirically identified aspects of positive and negative parenting styles important to conduct problems. The current study evaluated the APO with a large community sample of 4- to 9-year-old Australian children. The results showed good internal consistency, validity, and test-retest reliability for the measure. Means, standard deviations, and proposed cut-off scores are presented. These data indicate the APQ is potentially a useful measure for clinicians and researchers working with Australian samples of children with conduct problems and their families.