Publisher:
Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.
(800) 331-8378
www.parinc.com

Initial Material Cost:
PSI Long Form Kit: $131 (includes manual, 10 reusable item booklets, 25 hand-scorable answer sheet/profile forms)
PSI Short Form Kit: $90 (includes manual, 25 hand-scorable questionnaire/profile forms)

Representativeness of Norming Sample:
The English version of the PSI was standardized with parents of children ranging from 1 month to 12 years (mean of 4.9). The non-random sample of parents included 2,633 mothers (ages ranging from 16 to 61, with a mean of 30.9) and 200 fathers (ages ranging from 18 to 65, with a mean of 32.1). The parents were recruited by clinic, school, or child care center staff and volunteered to participate in the norm sampling study. The Spanish version was normed on a sample of 223 Hispanic parents.

Languages:
English, Spanish, French

Type of Assessment:
Parent report

Age Range and Administration Interval:
For parents of children ages 1 month to 12 years

Personnel, Training, Administration, and Scoring Requirements:
The manual states that an individual without formal training in psychology or social work can administer and score the PSI, but the interpretation of PSI scores requires someone with training in these or other related disciplines. Parent needs to have at least a 5th grade education. The PSI long form takes approximately 20 to 30 minutes to complete.

Summary
Initial Material Cost: 2 ($100 to $200)
Reliability: 3 (internal consistency and test-retest .65 or higher for both the Long and Short Forms)
Validity: 3 (mostly .5 or higher for concurrent validity)
Norming Sample Characteristics: 2 (not nationally representative)
Ease of Administration and Scoring: 3 (no special administration requirements, scored by highly trained individual)

Description: The purpose of the 120-item PSI is to produce a diagnostic profile of perceived child and parent stress. The PSI was developed based on the theory that total parental stress is a function of child and parent characteristics, as well as situational variables. It contains 13 sub-scales within 4 major domains: total stress, child domain, parent domain, and life stress. The total stress domain, which measures the level of stress in the parent-child relationship, is comprised of the child and parent domains. The child domain has six subscales that measure the child’s distractibility/hyperactivity, adaptability, reinforcement of the parenting experience, demandingness, mood, and acceptability. The remaining seven subscales make up the parent domain and measures: competence, isolation, attachment, health, feeling of role restriction, depression, and spousal support. The life stress domain measure sources of stress beyond the parent’s control. The PSI is also available in a Short Form, which consists of a 36-item self-scoring questionnaire and profile.

Uses of Information: Primary uses are screening for early identification, assessment for individual diagnosis (including informing therapy and counseling), pre-post measurement for effectiveness of intervention, and research for studying the effects of stress on parent-child interactions.

Reliability: (1) Internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) for the PSI (Long Form) sub-scales ranged from .70 to .83 in the Child Domain, .70 to .84 in the Parent Domain, and was greater than .90 for the two domains and the Total Stress scale. Similar internal consistency alphas for the PSI were also established in a cross-cultural population study (Hauenstein, et al., 1987). In the PSI Short Form (PSI/SF) subscales, internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) was .85 in the Difficult Child, .80 in Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction, .87 in Parental Distress, and .91 in Total Stress. (2) Test-retest reliabilities (intervals between administrations of the PSI in these studies ranged from 3 weeks to 1 year) in the PSI Long Form ranged from .55 to .82 for the Child Domain, .69 to .91 for the Parent Domain, and .65 to .96 for the Total Stress score.

Validity: (1) Concurrent validity: the manual provides an abstract of studies that demonstrated concurrent validity by comparing PSI (Long Form) scores with those on other assessment instruments. Only a few of the abstracts provided validity statistics. The few that reported statistics found that the correlation between Total Stress and the Bayley Scale was .42 at 3 months and .66 at 6 months. The correlation between child domain and negative behavior in hyperactive siblings relationships was .60, while its correlation with the 6 factors in the Family Impact Questionnaire ranged from .36 to .84. A study also reported correlations ranging from .65 to .77 between life stress and the lack of formal support among parents of children with disabilities.

Method of Scoring: The PSI contains a hand-scorable Answer Sheet on which basic demographic information and item responses are included. Most responses require the respondent to circle SA (strongly agree), A (agree), NS (not sure), D (disagree), or SD (strongly disagree) in response to the particular items. Addition and, if there are missing data, division skills are needed to obtain the raw scores. Using the profile form, which is part of the answering sheet, the scorer can obtain the percentile ranking for each sub-scale score. The respondent’s score can also be graphed on the profile form. Detailed information on scoring is provided in the Professional Manual.

The PSI also offers a Software Portfolio, Windows software that allows you to administer either the 120-item PSI or the 36-item PSI Short Form on-screen or to enter item responses from the PSI or the PSI Short Form. The software automatically scores the item responses and generates a report. Reports can be edited on-screen. This updated software program contains modifications to the interpretive statements, empirically based cutoff scores, and reference lists of PSI research.

Interpretability: The manual states that interpretation of the PSI scores requires someone who has graduate training in clinical, counseling, or educational psychology or in social work or a related field. Interpretation guidelines are discussed in the manual, and it is suggested that the individual reviewing and interpreting the results first interpret the Total Stress score, and then look at the Child Domain and Parent Domain scores and their subdomains scores to pinpoint the sources of stress. Throughout the interpretation guidelines in the manual, there are references to research literature. The interpretation section also includes five case illustrations profiling different parental and situational characteristics.

Training Support: None mentioned in manual

Adaptations/Special Instructions for Individuals with Disabilities: While there are no explicit instructions for administering the PSI with parents of children with disabilities, the manual contains information on how the PSI may work with this population. Sections entitled “Families with Special-Needs Children” and “Disabilities and Illnesses” cites various research studies related to use of the PSI in families with children having some disabilities. These studies are summarized, and cover various disabilities including: autism, deafness, congenital heart disease, asthma, cystic fibrosis, and so forth.

Report Preparation Support: The software generates a report. Two sample reports can be found at the publisher’s website: www.parinc.com

References:

Abidin, Richard R. Parenting Stress Index, Third Edition. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, 1995.

Hauenstein, E., S. Scarr, and Richard Abidin. Detecting Children At-risk for Developmental Delay: Efficacy of the Parenting Stress Index in a Non-American Culture. Unpublished manuscript. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1987.