Parental relations, mental health, and delinquency in adolescents

This paper presents a shortened, 20-item version of The Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), used in a sample of 573 Norwegian adolescents aged 15-19. The instrument measures mothers' and fathers' "care" and "control/overprotection" as perceived by the adolescent. The two dimensions of the instrument were clearly defined using factor analyses. In addition, they were shown to be related to measures of both depression/anxiety and delinquency, showing that PBI scores may indicate general and nonspecific risk factors in a broad range of psychosocial problems.