Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Multidimensional Assessment of Parenting Scale.

Abstract

Parenting practices have been linked to a wide range of issues related to children's psychological adjustment; however, more research is warranted to further understand not only cultural variations of parenting norms, but also how such variations might differentially influence child outcomes. The current study examined the psychometric properties of a Chinese translation of the Multidimensional Assessment of Parenting Scale (MAPS) in order to: 1) assess both positive and negative dimensions of parenting in Chinese-speaking societies, and 2) to explore the relationships between these practices and children's psychopathological symptoms. A total of 2237 parents with children between 6-12 years old completed the MAPS, Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting Scale (IM-P), adapted Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), and other measures related to children's psychosocial functioning. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a clear six-factor structure. Results demonstrated adequate psychometric properties in terms of internal consistency and test-retest reliability. MAPS subscales also showed concurrent and convergent validity with mindful parenting, parent-child bonding, and children's psychopathology outcomes. The importance of using culturally validated dimensional measures of parenting is discussed in this paper.

Measurement invariance in the assessment of parenting practices: A cross-cultural comparison of China and the United States.

“…Another bilingual PhD-level professor of child development and another doctoral candidate in developmental psychology, both of whom were not involved in the initial translation of the Mandarin MAPS, completed the back-translation process from Mandarin Chinese to English independently. The back-translators discussed discrepancies and then created a final back-translation (for further details, see Ahemaitijiang et al, 2021). English-speaking parents completed the MAPS via Amazon Mechanical Turk (https://www.mturk.com) as part of a larger study on parenting within the United States, whereas Mandarin-speaking parents completed the MAPS via Qualtrics surveys online as part of a larger study on mindfulness and parenting in Mainland China.…”

“…Participants were age-matched subsamples as a part of two separate research protocols in China (Ahemaitijiang et al, 2021) and the United States (Parent & Forehand, 2017). All procedures were reviewed and approved by the institutional review board of Beijing Normal University and University of Vermont.…”

“…The MAPS was derived from previously validated and widely used parenting scales (Parent & Forehand, 2017) to assess positive (e.g., warmth, affection, supportiveness, and acceptance) and negative (e.g., lax and physical control, hostility, harshness, and irritability) domains of parenting (Deater-Deckard et al, 2011; Parent & Forehand, 2017). The MAPS has shown initial evidence for psychometric properties in both cultures (Ahemaitijiang et al, 2021; Parent & Forehand, 2017). Findings from the present study aimed to inform future research regarding how to measure both universal and culturally influenced parenting practices across individualistic and collectivistic cultures.…”

Building Self-Efficacy in Parenting Adult Children With Autistic Spectrum Disorder: An Initial Investigation of a Two-Pronged Approach in Role Competence

“…The MAPS is a 34-item questionnaire assessing parenting practices with strong psychometric properties reported in both the original and Chinese versions ( Parent and Forehand, 2017 ; Ahemaitijiang et al, 2021 ). Given the relevancy to the CAPS and applicability to the developmental stage of the sample, three subscales, namely, “Proactive Parenting,” “Positive Reinforcement” and “Supportiveness,” were chosen to be outcome measures of the current study.…”

The Role of Mindfulness in Mitigating the Detrimental Effects of Harsh Parenting among Chinese Adolescents: Testing a Moderated Mediation Model in a Three-Wave Study

“…A meta-analysis by Gershoff and Grogan-Kaylor indicated that 69.4% of harsh parenting studies were from the United States [ 21 ], with the remaining small number of studies from Western Europe, and that there is a paucity of relevant studies based on Eastern cultural backgrounds. One example is that of Ahemaitijiang et al [ 22 ] who validated both positive and negative dimensions of parenting to measure parenting styles in the Chinese cultural context. Therefore, the generalizability of the link between harsh parenting and suicidal ideation in Eastern cultural contexts needs to be further tested.…”