Psychometric Evaluation of the Child Rearing Inventory (CRI) in an Online Sample of Parents of Children Ages 3 to 12

Abstract

Parental tolerance has previously been defined as the function of how annoyed a parent becomes by their child’s defiant or disruptive behavior. However, there has been little research on parental tolerance as a construct and its relationships with other potentially theoretically related constructs, such as parenting style and parent report of child behavior. In order to properly examine parental tolerance as a theoretical construct, the Child Rearing Inventory (CRI), a parent report measure of parental tolerance, was created. The limited research conducted with the CRI to date has shown that it is a promising measure with acceptable internal consistency, strong discriminant validity, and a potential two-factor structure. The current study provides additional support for the internal consistency and construct validity of the CRI. However, the two-factor structure of the measure was not supported by the confirmatory factor analysis. Results also examine and provide support for the relationship between parental tolerance and parenting style, parent report of child behavior, parent’s perception of the parent-child relationship, and parent and child mental health. It is suggested that the CRI be revised prior to further research examining its use in a clinical population.