[The Play-PAB and its Validation in a Preschool Psychiatric Population]

With community samples, parent behavior can be assessed in standardized mother-child interaction situations with the observational instrument Lab-PAB by Wilson und Durbin (2012) with respect to five dimensions (Involvement, Positive Emotionality, Hostility, Intrusiveness and Discipline). We examined an adaptation of Lab-PAB for non-standardized free-play interaction situations (Play-PAB version) with a preschool psychiatric sample. We examined the internal consistency, interrater reliability and dimensional structure of the Play-PAB and its associations to the clinical relationship assessment scale PIR-GAS from DC:0-3R. Interaction sequences of 47 parent-child dyads who were treated in our Family Day Clinic were evaluated at admission with the Play-PAB, in addition to the PIR-GAS-rating. Each instrument was rated by two independent raters. We report means, standard deviations, internal consistencies and the interrater-reliability for each of the five Play-PAB scales. Furthermore we examine if the scale intercorrelations are reasonable in comparison to the original version. Finally, the associations to PIR-GAS are presented. The Play-PAB scales reflect sufficient variation of parenting, good internal consistencies and satisfactory interrater reliability. The adaptation shows psychometric properties that are comparable to the original version. The scale intercorrelations as well as the associations to PIR-GAS are reasonable. The Play-PAB is a promising instrument for assessing different aspects of parent behavior in a preschool psychiatric sample, with meaningful associations to parent-child-relationship quality.