A Norwegian validity study of parenting stress measured by the Nijmegen Child-Rearing Situation Questionnaire section one.

The aim of this study was to explore the construct validity and reliability of the Nijmegen Child-Rearing Situation Questionnaire (NCSQ) section one entitled 'Subjective parenting stress'. This is composed of subscales measuring relational and situational stress. The possibility of using subscales with both dimensions in the same study gives the opportunity to explore parenting stress from both a relational and situational perspective. The NCSQ was administered to parents of two groups of boys, 6-12 years old. The clinical group consisted of 64 parents of children reporting behaviour problems who were recruited from seven child and adolescent clinical psychiatric units. A group of 128 parents of children reporting no specific behavioural problems were recruited from 12 schools. Six boys in each class grades 1-7 were randomly selected from the class rosters. Both samples were recruited from Oslo and surrounding eastern counties. The suggested factor structure of the construct parenting stress was tested with data from both groups. First, a separate confirmatory analysis of the items in each factor was tested. Then testing was carried out with one- and two-factor analysis using the sum scores from each subscale, to further explore whether parenting stress was a one-dimensional general or a two-dimensional construct. Results showed an unacceptable model fit of the pleasure subscale in the clinical group. The instrument is not relevant for normal populations due to the skewed responses found in the acceptance and pleasure subscales, the low internal reliability found in the acceptance and relation subscales, and the unacceptable factor loading and model fit found for the managing subscale in the comparison group. Further studies are needed to test the construct validity and reliability of the scale. Although the instrument is intended for clinical populations, hopefully with further revisions and research, it might be used as a clinical tool to define dimensions of parenting stress in everyday life.

Appraisals of stress in child-rearing in Swedish mothers pre-schoolers with ADHD. A questionnaire study.

Dutch self-report questionnaire for measuring parental: i) subjective stress, ii) global appraisal of the child-rearing situation, iii) attribution of child-rearing outcomes, and iv) expectation for help was translated into Swedish and applied to mothers of two groups of 3- to 7-year-olds: one with DSM-IV ADHD (n = 131) and one without DSM-IV ADHD (n = 131). The suggested factor structure of the original Dutch report was tested with confirmatory analysis on data from the mothers of children with ADHD [131]. There was no perfect fit to the data, but close enough to judge the factors as applicable to this sample. Factor reliability testing was performed. Results indicated good psychometric properties. Highly significant differences on all the measures in the four different sections (i) through (iv) were found between the ADHD group and the comparison group. The questionnaire is suggested to be useful in clinical work and research projects on problematic child-rearing situations.