Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law

The Parental Support (SUP) and Role Orientation

(ROL) scales measure parental characteristics that

may influence interactions with a child. Each of these

scales yields a separate score. Evaluation of the valid-

ity of parents’ responses is facilitated by the inclusion

of a Social Desirability scale (SOC) and 10 correlated

items for examining the consistency of their responses

in the inventory.

Description and Development

The PCRI was developed, for individual or group

administration, to evaluate the quality of parent-child

relationships in both applied and research settings.

Construction of the scales combined experts’ ratings,

empirical tests, and subjective critiques by parents and

professionals to identify items for inclusion in the

measure. The final version of the PCRI was based on

standardization data collected from a predominately

White sample of 668 mothers and 471 fathers whose

children were between the ages of 3 and 15. In most

cases, responses were collected from both parents in

a family regarding their dyadic relationship with

the same child. These normative data were used to

develop separate tables for the interpretation of moth-

ers’ and fathers’ responses that potentially reflect gen-

der differences in parenting. Raw scores can be

transformed to percentiles and Tscores.

Reliability

In the test manual, Anthony Gerard reports alphas

(Cronbach’s alpha coefficient) for the seven scales

ranging from .71 (SUP) to .87 (LIM). Test-retest reli-

ability after 1 week ranges from .68 (COM) to .93

(LIM) and after 5 months from .44 (AUT) to .71 (SUP

and ROL).

Validity

Content validity of the PCRI is substantiated by how

well the scale items represent parents’ attitudes and val-

ues based on parenting theory, comparison with the

extant literature, and experts’ ratings of the items. An

iterative process resulted in statistical evidence that the

PCRI’s scales, and the items included therein, character-

ize well-established domains of the parent-child relation-

ship. During measure development, construct validity

was examined by the assessment of internal consistency

and item-scale correlations. Intercorrelations between

the scales are attributed to an expected correspondence

between particular domains. For example, parents who

report that they participate in activities with their

children are more likely to respond that they have open

and effective communications with their children as

well. However, concerns have been raised regarding

overlapping constructs that contribute to redundancy

among the scales.

Evidence of predictive and criterion-related valid-

ity is presented in the PCRI manual. Responses from

couples involved in divorce litigation and custody

mediation revealed that these parents were more likely

to report difficulties in their relationship with their

children than did the normative sample. Likewise,

adolescent mothers who reported lower satisfaction

with their parenting role were more likely to disci-

pline by means of scolding and physical punishment.

Recently, cross-informant convergence was reported

for mothers’ and fathers’ independent self-appraisals

of family unity with their own responses on the PCRI.

However, only the mothers’ self-assessments of

family discord corresponded systematically with the

PCRI. A similar pattern was found between adoles-

cents’ and mothers’ appraisals of family unity and dis-

cord. The lack of correspondence between mothers’

and fathers’ responses, as well as between those of

fathers and adolescents, is consistent with the litera-

ture regarding differences in the relationships mothers

and fathers have with their children. Hence, the PCRI

may not accomplish convergent validity for both moth-

ers and fathers.

Future Research

Emerging research has corroborated the internal con-

sistency, stability, and validity of the PCRI. Additional

research would enhance the measure’s external valid-

ity. First, families from diverse backgrounds followed

longitudinally would contribute to norms for age-

related changes in the parent-child relationship as

children mature. These data could also contribute to

the examination of whether the lower internal consis-

tency reported for the AUT scale is related to a child’s

age and parental adjustments in nurturing age-appro-

priate independence. Additionally, norms are not

available for differing ethnic or cultural groups. Certain

parenting behaviors (i.e., autonomy, discipline, com-

munication) may vary between cultural groups in cor-

respondence to family hierarchies and expectations

placed on family members. Given the diversity within

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