NCJ Number
191895
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 16 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2001 Pages: 361-373
Date Published
December 2001
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This study built upon existing research conducted with the Parental Anger Inventory (PAI), a measure developed specifically to assess parental anger in response to child misbehavior, by further documenting its psychometric properties and investigating its utility in measuring parental anger with a varied sample of parents, including help-seeking and maltreating parents.
Abstract
A diverse sample of 98 parents participated in the study, including physically abusive or neglectful parents, or both (n=44); nonmaltreating parents seeking assistance for child behavior problems (n=24); and nonmaltreating, non-help-seeking community parents (n=30). Parents were asked to complete various self-report measures that pertained to parenting, child behavior, and affective experience (e.g., stress and anger). In addition to the measures, demographic information was collected from the participants. To examine the test-retest reliability of the PAI, parents were asked to complete a second PAI weeks after completion of the first PAI. A total of 39 parents completed both administrations of the PAI, with an average of 16.85 days between administrations. Upon completion of the second administration of the PAI, parents were entered into a lottery that made them eligible to receive a family-related "prize." Findings supported the internal consistency, temporal stability, and convergent validity of the PAI. Findings also showed the PAI's potential utility when working with maltreating and help-seeking parents. Findings highlight the importance of assessing parental anger toward children and support the use of the PAI in assessment, treatment, and research. 3 tables and 25 references