ABSTRACT
The Parental Challenge Questionnaire (PCQ), a 30-item unidimensional scale, was developed by R. M. Dailey to capture any communicative behaviors that parents use to push or test their children’s existing skills and abilities. Dailey’s initial study found that parental challenge behaviors are positively associated with adolescent self-esteem as well as identity strength. Dailey also found that parental acceptance and challenge are positively related to each other and necessary for the development of positive outcomes with children. Dailey validated the PCQ measure with three separate studies employing three different samples. The first study identified challenge behaviors that young adults reported receiving from parents. Young adults rated the challenge behaviors for mothers and fathers separately in the second study to assess unique differences in challenge behaviors and narrow the overall list of parental challenge behaviors. The PCQ demonstrates construct validity because it is strongly correlated with the challenge subscale found in the Complex Family Questionnaire.
