Description

The Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) is a psychometric instrument used to assess children’s or adolescents’ perceptions of parental authority and parenting styles. It enables the systematic examination of how parental practices are perceived and how different forms of parenting may be associated with psychological and behavioral outcomes in children.

The PAQ is particularly useful in research focusing on family relationships and child development, as it provides a structured approach to exploring the relationship between parenting practices and children’s psychological adjustment.

Aim

The primary aim of the PAQ is to provide a reliable and valid method for measuring children’s perceptions of parenting styles. It allows researchers and professionals to better understand the relationship between parental practices and child development and to identify parenting styles that may have either positive or negative effects on children’s psychological well-being.

The instrument can therefore contribute to the investigation of how different patterns of parental authority are associated with emotional, social, and behavioral development.

Scoring

The PAQ is completed by children or adolescents. Each item is generally rated using a Likert-type scale, typically ranging from 1 = Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly Agree.

Scores for each parenting style are calculated by summing the responses to the relevant items. The resulting scores provide an indication of the extent to which different parenting styles characterize the parental behavior perceived by the respondent.

Psychometric Evaluation

Data collected through the PAQ are commonly examined using statistical procedures such as factor analysis and reliability analysis. These methods can be used to evaluate the structural characteristics and reliability of the instrument and to investigate associations between parenting practices and different psychological or behavioral outcomes in children.

Psychometric evaluation is particularly important when the questionnaire is applied to different populations or adapted for use in different linguistic and cultural contexts.

Applications

The PAQ can be used in research in developmental psychology, family psychology, education, child and adolescent mental health, and family studies.

Its findings may help researchers explore relationships between parenting styles and outcomes such as psychological well-being, behavior, social adjustment, and child development. It can also support broader research examining how parental practices contribute to differences in developmental and psychosocial outcomes.

Reference

Buri, J. R. (1991). Parental Authority Questionnaire. Journal of Personality Assessment, 57(1), 110–119.