Validation of the Comprehensive General Parenting Questionnaire for Caregivers of 5- to 13-Year-Old Children

Parenting is a multifaceted task and the way in which parents fulfill this task plays an important role in children’s growth and development, especially in early childhood. Although there are a large number of parenting questionnaires, considerable disagreement exists about how to best assess parenting. Most of the instruments only assess limited aspects of parenting. Hence, it is necessary to identify the core constructs of parenting and to elaborate and clarify their cognitive components. Conceptualization and measurement of key parenting constructs constitutes an elementary component of research on child and family development. In order to overcome this shortcoming, validation of a comprehensive general parenting questionnaire in Iranian community was done by focusing on assessing a wide range of multiple parenting behaviors simultaneously. This questionnaire (CGPQ) assesses parental behaviors in five key construct of parenting (Nurturance, Overprotection, Coercive control, Behavioral control, and Structure). The study design was descriptive. The sample consisted of 416 Iranian parents and caregivers of 5- to 13-year-old children who were selected by convenience sampling method and completed an online survey. Factor analysis methods and Item-Response modeling techniques were utilized. The results demonstrated that the reduced questionnaire (containing 80 items) revealed a good fit. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a five-factor structure (composed of 80 items). Internal consistency of these five domains of parenting was within the desired range. Based on the findings, the Persian version of the Comprehensive General Parenting Questionnaire has desirable psychometric properties and can be used as a suitable instrument in Iranian society.