Validity of the Parenting Stress Index Short Form in a sample of at-risk mothers.
Abstract
Background: The Parenting Stress Index Short Form (PSI-SF) is a widely used instrument in scientific literature to evaluate the levels of stress a parent feels when facing parenting-related tasks. Despite the potential usefulness of the PSI-SF with at-risk families, no validation studies have been carried out on this population in Spain. Objectives: The main objective of this study is to report evidences of the reliability and validity of PSI-SF with a sample of at-risk mothers. Specifically, (1) to examine the discriminative capacity of PSI-SF to differentiate between a community sample and another sample composed of families with various levels of risk and (2) to analyze the relationships with general health indicators and parental sense of competence. Results: Analyses reported in this article show satisfactory results regarding appropriate internal consistency coefficients for the scale. With respect to the evidences of validity, results reported here suggest that the total PSI-SF score, but not the two subscales, could be useful to differentiate between different groups of mothers with different levels of risk. The Childrearing stress subscale was associated with a poorer perception as a mother as well as with an external locus of control, and the Personal distress subscale was related to all the general health indicators, explaining a high percentage of variance. Conclusion: The results reported show that the total score or the subscales should be used in a differentiated way according to the professional’s objectives. Hence, PSI-SF may be a useful instrument for researchers and practitioners who work with at-risk families.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Cites
Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences
Muller, K. E., & Cohen, J. (1989) · Technometrics · doi:10.2307/1270020 · Cited by 99,588 · see citing works
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (1983) · Cited by 79,888 · see citing works
Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences
Cohen, J. (1990) · Computers Environment and Urban Systems · doi:10.1016/0198-9715(90)90050-4 · Cited by 65,406 · see citing works
Eysenck, H. J. (1985) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/0005-7967(85)90087-7 · Cited by 32,026 · see citing works
“Stress: appraisal and coping,”
Folkman, S. (2013) · Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_215 · Cited by 27,833 · see citing works
Using Multivariate Statistics (5th Edition)
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2006) · Allyn & Bacon, Inc. eBooks · Cited by 11,189 · see citing works
(2007) · Cited by 10,092 · see citing works
A Measure of Parenting Satisfaction and Efficacy
Johnston, C., & Mash, E. J. (1989) · Journal of Clinical Child Psychology · doi:10.1207/s15374424jccp1802_8 · Cited by 1,840 · see citing works
Standards for educational and psychological testing
(1985) · PsycEXTRA Dataset · doi:10.1037/e500832009-001 · Cited by 1,493 · see citing works
Risk factors in child maltreatment: A meta-analytic review of the literature
Stith, S. M., Liu, T., Davies, L. C., Boykin, E. L., Alder, M. C., Harris, J. M., Som, A., McPherson, M., & Dees, J. E. M. E. G. (2009) · Aggression and Violent Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.avb.2006.03.006 · Cited by 1,213 · see citing works
Evaluating stress : a book of resources
Zalaquett, C. P., & Wood, R. J. (1997) · Scarecrow Press eBooks · Cited by 1,176 · see citing works
The Determinants of Parenting Behavior
Abidin, R. R. (1992) · Journal of Clinical Child Psychology · doi:10.1207/s15374424jccp2104_12 · Cited by 1,121 · see citing works
Parenting stress and child adjustment: Some old hypotheses and new questions.
Deater-Deckard, K. D. (1998) · Clinical Psychology Science and Practice · doi:10.1111/j.1468-2850.1998.tb00152.x · Cited by 1,028 · see citing works
Archer, R. P. (2013) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203726587-17 · Cited by 968 · see citing works
Factor structure and validity of the parenting stress index-short form.
Haskett, M. E., Ahern, L. S., Ward, C. S., & Allaire, J. C. (2006) · Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology · doi:10.1207/s15374424jccp3502_14 · Cited by 556 · see citing works
A Critical Evaluation of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) in a Head Start Population
Reitman, D., Currier, R. O., & Stickle, T. R. (2002) · Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology · doi:10.1207/s15374424jccp3103_10 · Cited by 471 · see citing works
Parenting stress among dual-earner mothers and fathers: Are there gender differences?
Deater-Deckard, K. D., & Scarr, S. W. (1996) · Journal of Family Psychology · doi:10.1037/0893-3200.10.1.45 · Cited by 445 · see citing works
Everyday stresses and parenting.
Crnic, K. A., & Low, C. (2002) · Cited by 429 · see citing works
The Parental Locus of Control Scale: Development and Validation
Campis, L. K., Lyman, R. D., & Prentice‐Dunn, S. (1986) · Journal of Clinical Child Psychology · doi:10.1207/s15374424jccp1503_10 · Cited by 376 · see citing works
Predictors of parenting self‐efficacy in mothers and fathers of toddlers
Sevigny, P. R., & Loutzenhiser, L. (2009) · Child Care Health and Development · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2214.2009.00980.x · Cited by 315 · see citing works
Efficacy and social support as predictors of parenting stress among families in poverty
Raikes, H., & Thompson, R. A. (2005) · Infant Mental Health Journal · doi:10.1002/imhj.20044 · Cited by 308 · see citing works
Roddenberry, A., & Renk, K. (2010) · Child Psychiatry & Human Development · doi:10.1007/s10578-010-0173-6 · Cited by 229 · see citing works
Parenting self-efficacy, parenting stress and child behaviour before and after a parenting programme
Bloomfield, L., & Kendall, S. (2012) · Primary Health Care Research & Development · doi:10.1017/s1463423612000060 · Cited by 229 · see citing works
Carver, C. S., & Vargas, S. E. (2012) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195342819.013.0008 · Cited by 228 · see citing works
Parenting Stress Index: A measure of the parent–child system.
Abidin, R. R. (1997) · Cited by 184 · see citing works
Whiteside-Mansell, L., AYOUB, C. C., McKelvey, L. M., Faldowski, R. A., Hart, A. D., & Shears, J. (2007) · Parenting · doi:10.1080/15295190709336775 · Cited by 172 · see citing works
Costa, N. M., Weems, C. F., Pellerin, K., & Dalton, R. (2006) · Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment · doi:10.1007/s10862-006-7489-3 · Cited by 163 · see citing works
(2006) · CiteSeer X (The Pennsylvania State University) · Cited by 142 · see citing works
Zaidman‐Zait, A., Mirenda, P., Zumbo, B. D., Wellington, S., Dua, V., & Kalynchuk, K. (2010) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02266.x · Cited by 131 · see citing works
Ponnet, K. S., Wouters, E., Mortelmans, D., Pasteels, I., Backer, C. J. S. D., Leeuwen, K. G. V., & Hiel, A. V. (2012) · Family Process · doi:10.1111/famp.12001 · Cited by 126 · see citing works
Anderson, L. (2008) · Nursing Research · doi:10.1097/01.nnr.0000313502.92227.87 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Maternal Depressive Symptomatology and Parenting Behavior: Exploration of Possible Mediators
Gerdes, A. C., Hoza, B., Arnold, L. E., Pelham, W. E., Swanson, J. M., Wigal, T. L., & Jensen, P. S. (2007) · Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology · doi:10.1007/s10802-007-9134-3 · Cited by 115 · see citing works
El estrés: un análisis basado en el papel de los factores sociales
Sandín, B. (2003) · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Cited by 111 · see citing works
Parenting Stress as a Mediator of the Relation Between Parenting Support and Optimal Parenting
Bonds, D. D., Gondoli, D. M., Sturge‐Apple, M. L., & Salem, L. N. (2002) · Parenting · doi:10.1207/s15327922par0204_04 · Cited by 108 · see citing works
Assessing Knowledge Sharing Among Academics
Ramayah, T., Yeap, J. A. L., & Ignatius, J. (2014) · Evaluation Review · doi:10.1177/0193841x14539685 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
Marcynyszyn, L. A., Maher, E. J., & Corwin, T. W. (2010) · Children and Youth Services Review · doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2010.11.021 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Christensen, H. M., Batterham, P. J., Mackinnon, A. J., Griffiths, K. M., Hehir, K. K., Kenardy, J. A., Gosling, J., & Bennett, K. (2014) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.3507 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Parenting stress and external stressors as predictors of maternal ratings of child adjustment
Östberg, M., & Hageküll, B. (2013) · Scandinavian Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1111/sjop.12045 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Goldberg, D. P., & Williams, P. N. (1996) · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Early prediction and prevention of child abuse. A handbook.
Barnes, J. (2003) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00176_9 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Validity of the Short Form of the Parenting Stress Index for Fathers of Toddlers
McKelvey, L. M., Whiteside-Mansell, L., Faldowski, R. A., Shears, J., AYOUB, C. C., & Hart, A. D. (2008) · Journal of Child and Family Studies · doi:10.1007/s10826-008-9211-4 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Díaz-Herrero, Á., de la Nuez, A. G. B., Pina, J. A. L., López, J. P., & Martínez-Fuentes, M. T. (2010) · PubMed · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Preventing Maltreatment with a Community-Based Implementation of Parent–Child Interaction Therapy
Lanier, P., Kohl, P. L., Benz, J., Swinger, D., & Drake, B. (2012) · Journal of Child and Family Studies · doi:10.1007/s10826-012-9708-8 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Conrad, K. J., Riley, B., Conrad, K. M., Chan, Y.-F., & Dennis, M. L. (2010) · Evaluation Review · doi:10.1177/0193841x10362162 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
[Psychosocial risk assessment among families receiving assistance from the social services].
Rodríguez, G., Camacho, J., Rodrigo, M. J., Quintana, J. C. M., & Máiquez, M. L. (2006) · PubMed · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Cho, K. S., & Hong, E. J. (2012) · Stress and Health · doi:10.1002/smi.2457 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
López, M. J. R., Byrne, S., & Álvarez, M. (2011) · European Journal of Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1080/17405629.2011.607340 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Harnett, P. H., & Dawe, S. (2008) · Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention · doi:10.1093/brief-treatment/mhn010 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Vosbergen, S., Mahieu, G. R., Laan, E. K., Kraaijenhagen, R. A., Jaspers, M., & Peek, N. B. (2014) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.2517 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Promoting positive parenting as an abuse prevention strategy
Sanders, M. R., & Cann, W. G. (2002) · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Hurley, K. D., Griffith, A. K., Ingram, S. D., Bolivar, C., Mason, W. A., & Trout, A. L. (2012) · Journal of Child and Family Studies · doi:10.1007/s10826-011-9563-z · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Ponnet, K. S., & Wouters, E. (2014) · JMIR Research Protocols · doi:10.2196/resprot.2832 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Community-based Support for Parents
Hutchings, J., & Webster-Stratton, C. H. (2004) · SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781848608160.n20 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Haapsamo, H., Pollock, R. A., Kuusikko‐Gauffin, S., Ebeling, H. E., Larinen, K., Soini, H. S., & Moilanen, I. K. (2013) · Early Child Development and Care · doi:10.1080/03004430.2012.756874 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Wu, Y., Espinosa, K. M., Barnett, S. D., Kapse, A., Quistorff, J. L., Lopez, C., Andescavage, N., Pradhan, S., Lu, Y.-C., Kapse, K., et al. (2022) · JAMA Network Open · doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.9244 · Cited by 113 · see citing works
Ochandorena‐Acha, M., Terradas‐Monllor, M., Sala, L. L., Cazorla-Sánchez, M., Marti, M. F., Pérez, I. M., Agut-Quijano, T., Iriondo, M., & Casas-Baroy, J. C. (2022) · Children · doi:10.3390/children9060895 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Aracena, M., Gómez, E., Undurraga, C., Leiva, L., Chavez, K. M., & Molina, Y. (2016) · Journal of Child and Family Studies · doi:10.1007/s10826-016-0520-8 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Ríos, M., Zekri, S., Alonso-Esteban, Y., & Navarro‐Pardo, E. (2022) · Children · doi:10.3390/children9111649 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Rivas, G. R. P., Arruabarrena, I., & de Paúl, J. (2020) · Psychosocial Intervention · doi:10.5093/pi2020a14 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
The Relationship between Mother’s Smartphone Addiction and Children’s Smartphone Usage
Kim, B., Han, S. R., Park, E. J., Yoo, H., Suh, S. A., & Shin, Y. (2021) · Psychiatry Investigation · doi:10.30773/pi.2020.0338 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Dusing, S. C., Burnsed, J. C., Brown, S. E., Harper, A. D., Hendricks‐Muñoz, K. D., Stevenson, R. D., Thacker, L. R., & Molinini, R. M. (2020) · Physical Therapy · doi:10.1093/ptj/pzaa077 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Pandya, S. P. (2020) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-020-04633-x · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Effects on Parental Stress of Early Home-Based CareToy Intervention in Low-Risk Preterm Infants
Sgandurra, G., Beani, E., Inguaggiato, E., Lorentzen, J., Nielsen, J. B., & Cioni, G. (2019) · Neural Plasticity · doi:10.1155/2019/7517351 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Limbers, C. A., Gutierrez, A. L., & Cohen, L. A. (2020) · Journal of Primary Care & Community Health · doi:10.1177/2150132720936067 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Blankestein, A. M. M. M., van der Rijken, R. E. A., Broekhoven, J. L., Lange, A. M. C., Simons, I., van Domburgh, L., van Santvoort, F., & Scholte, R. H. J. (2021) · Residential Treatment for Children & Youth · doi:10.1080/0886571x.2020.1863894 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): A Proxy Measure of Parenting Stress
McSherry, D., Fargas, M., & Weatherall, K. (2018) · The British Journal of Social Work · doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcy021 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Daulay, N., Ramdhani, N., & Hadjam, N. R. (2020) · Jurnal Psikologi · doi:10.22146/jpsi.43744 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Hatakeyama, T., Matsumura, K., Tsuchida, A., Inadera, H., The Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS) Group, Kamijima, M., Yamazaki, S., Ohya, Y., Kishi, R., Yaegashi, N., et al. (2022) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-022-23849-8 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Jamison, J., Egger, D., Vazquez, C. E., McBride, M. J., Pauling, S., Hess, K. E., Calzada, E. J., & Bearman, S. K. (2023) · Journal of Child and Family Studies · doi:10.1007/s10826-023-02545-9 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Khalsa, A. S., Andridge, R., Keim, S. A., Zvara, B. J., & Anderson, S. E. (2024) · Journal of Pediatric Health Care · doi:10.1016/j.pedhc.2024.07.003 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Gao, X., & Lee, K. L. (2021) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.661972 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Cohen, L. A., & Limbers, C. A. (2018) · Family Practice · doi:10.1093/fampra/cmy110 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Baggett, K. M., Davis, B., Sheeber, L., Miller, K., Leve, C. S., Mosley, E. A., Landry, S. H., & Feil, E. G. (2021) · JMIR Research Protocols · doi:10.2196/31072 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Emam, M. M., Al-Hendawi, M., & Ali, D. G. (2022) · International Journal of Mental Health · doi:10.1080/00207411.2022.2035904 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
The Effects of the Early-onset Otitis Media on Cognitive Skills in Children: A Systematic Review
Ghazi, S., Haresabadi, F., & Shahmahmood, T. M. (2022) · Iranian Rehabilitation Journal · doi:10.32598/irj.20.3.1544.1 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Mitchell-Krishnan, A., Cohen, M., Iwai, Y., & Chacko, A. (2023) · Child & Family Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1080/07317107.2023.2175342 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
ÇABUK, F. U., ILDIZ, G. İ., Seven, S., & Kaya, İ. (2022) · International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies · doi:10.52380/ijpes.2022.9.3.539 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Cyr, C. P., Martel, É., St‐Laurent, D., Tarabulsy, G. M., Bernier, A., Lemieux, R., & Dubois‐Comtois, K. (2024) · Enfance · doi:10.3917/enf2.243.0275
Valencia‐Agudo, F., Villalta, L., Urbiola-Merina, E., Garriz-Luis, A., López-Moreno, L., Rivas-Rodríguez, M., Parellada, M., & Romero-González, M. (2026) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-026-07268-6
Liu, J., Guan, W., Zhang, Y., & Xie, Z. (2026) · Research in Developmental Disabilities · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2026.105329
- Authors
- Pérez-Padilla, J., Menéndez, S., & Lozano, O.
- Affiliations
- Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain
- Universidad de Huelva (ES)
- ORCID
- Lozano, Oscar
- Venue
- Evaluation Review
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2015-08
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 428-446
- ISSN
- 0145-4692 (ISSN-L)
- 0193-841X
- 1552-3926
- OpenAlex
- W1837678771
- Cited by
- 28
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 1.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Evaluation Review (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Social Sciences › Education › Health Education and Validation
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Keywords
- Parenting Stress Index-Short Form, parental stress, high-risk mothers, high-risk families, psychometric validation, reliability statistics, discriminant validity, personal distress, parental sense of competence, locus of control, maternal health, Spanish adaptation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Analysis of Variance, Child, Child Rearing, Child, Preschool, Family Characteristics, Health Status Indicators, Humans, Internal-External Control, Mother-Child Relations, Mothers, Poverty, Psychometrics, Self-Assessment, Spain, Stress, Psychological, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Assessment
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
