Parenting behavior rating scales: preliminary validation with intrusive, abusive mothers

This study provided preliminary evidence of the reliability and validity of a set of scales fro rating the parenting behaviors of physically abusive mothers. Thirty-two male and 32 female undergraduates viewed a video-tape of either an abusive or matched control mother interacting with her son. Two tapes of abusive mothers, representative of the Intrusive mother type, and two matched control tapes were used. Subjects rated the mother's behavior on rating scales matching an observational coding system developed by Oldershaw, Walters, and Hall (1989). Mean ratings of between six to eight raters displayed sufficiently high reliability. As expected, ratings correlated with behavior frequency data. Observers' ratings discriminated between abusive mothers and nonabusive controls, providing evidence of construct validity of the scales. The potential utility of a rating scale instrument for the clinical assessment of parenting behaviors is discussed.