ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews types of parenting, measurement techniques and issues related to the measurement of parenting, such as measurement bias, measurement level, choosing reporters, measurement across groups and development, and the theoretical conceptualization of parenting. It explains various instruments for measuring parenting cognitions and practices. Parenting can be divided into cognitions and practices—beliefs and behaviors—that relate to the childrearing role. Parenting research comes with a host of measurement issues, including validity and reliability, balancing various biases, choosing a measurement level, deciding whose perspective is most important to study, dealing with the meaning of parenting in different groups as well as changes across child development. In parenting research, social desirability bias can affect responses about one’s own parenting, the child, or the dyad. Parenting cognitions encompass knowledge about parenting and child development, attributions, attitudes, feelings of competence and efficacy, parenting stress, and parenting goals and values.
