Peer-reviewed article
All you need is love: preliminary validation of a new test of 10 parenting competencies that predict good outcomes with young children.
Epstein R, Nanayakkara P, Newland A, Wang N, Zankich VR ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001Researchers developed and tested a new online questionnaire to measure 10 parenting competencies believed to predict positive child outcomes. The study surveyed nearly 17,000 parents across 133 countries and found that the questionnaire reliably measured parenting abilities. Love and affection emerged as the strongest predictor of good child outcomes, while safety was the least predictive of the 10 competencies tested. Parents who had received parenting training scored higher on the questionnaire.
Key points
- The questionnaire showed strong criterion validity, with total scores positively correlated with parents' reports of relationship quality, their own parenting ability, and children's happiness, health, and success (p < 0.001)
- Love and Affection was identified as the best predictor of good outcomes with children among the 10 competencies
- Safety was identified as the least valuable of the 10 competencies studied
- Parents with prior parenting training had higher questionnaire scores, and more training was associated with higher scores
- Differences were found across gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, number of children, and education level
Limitations
This study used a convenience sample that was predominantly from the U.S. (53.3%), and the validity assessment relied on self-reported outcomes regarding children's happiness, health, and success rather than independent measurement of actual child well-being. The study does not demonstrate whether parenting training actually improves child outcomes, only that trained parents score higher on the questionnaire.
Abstract
Objectives The main objectives of this study were to provide preliminary evidence of the validity of a new online test of parenting competencies and to determine the relative value of 10 competencies that have been shown in empirical studies to be helpful in parenting. Methods We examined data obtained from a diverse convenience sample of 16,986 parents in 133 countries (53.3% from the U.S.) who completed the new online parenting questionnaire. We employed a concurrent study design to assess the validity of the new instrument. In a double-blind procedure to assess content validity, 11 parenting professionals rated both the competencies and the questionnaire items. To assess criterion validity, we used regression analyses to examine the relationship between questionnaire scores and participants' answers to questions about the quality of their relationship with their children, how highly they rated their own parenting ability, and the happiness, health, and success of their children. Results Total scores were positively correlated with answers to our five criterion questions (p < 0.001), suggesting relatively strong criterion validity for the new questionnaire. Internal consistency reliability was also high. Regression analyses suggested that the competency we labeled Love and Affection was the best predictor of good outcomes with children and that the competency we called Safety was the least valuable of the 10. Effects were found for gender (with females slightly outscoring males), race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, number of children, and education level. Total scores were higher for parents who had had parenting training, and more training was associated with higher scores. Conclusion The study supports the view that parenting can be broken down into measurable and trainable competencies and provides guidance regarding how such training should be conducted.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Development and validation of an online questionnaire measuring 10 parenting competencies (including Love and Affection, Safety, and 8 others)
- Population
- 16,986 parents from 133 countries (53.3% from U.S.), diverse in gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, number of children, and education level
Key finding
Total questionnaire scores were positively correlated with five criterion measures of child well-being outcomes (p < 0.001)