The Multidimensional Assessment of Parenting Scale: Youth Report Form in Inpatient and Partial Hospital Settings

The Multidimensional Assessment of Parenting Scale (MAPS) was developed to assess a wide range of behaviors across positive and negative domains of parenting. This study aims to expand the utility of the MAPS by evaluating a youth-report version which provides an additional perspective on parenting practices. The study evaluated the youth-report form of the MAPS (MAPS-Y) in a large clinical population (N = 628) ranging from middle childhood (8-12) to adolescence (13-17) who were admitted to partial and inpatient psychiatric units. Youth and their caregivers completed the parent and youth versions of the MAPS questionnaire, and measures of child and adolescent psychopathology, emotion regulation, family context, and adversity. Analyses of factor structure, reliability, agreement, and validity were performed. The study also examined a short form of the MAPS-Y for reliability and validity. CFA and model fit indices indicated that all items loaded as expected onto subscales and with good fit. Analyses support strong reliability. The factor structure of the youth-report form was invariant across developmental stages, included both positive and negative domains, and demonstrated strong psychometric properties. The MAPS-Y short form demonstrated strong validity and reliability. The youth-report form of the MAPS and its short form are appropriate for use among children and adolescents experiencing acute clinical symptoms. The MAPS youth-report form will allow for nuanced, in-depth assessment of the parenting behaviors beyond parent-report that are critical to treatment outcomes in youth.