The Scale of Parental Discipline: Assessing the reliability and validity of a new measurement scale

In the past twenty years, a large number of empirical studies have been conducted regarding the psychosocial effects of discipline on children. Researchers have examined differential effects of many discipline tactics (e.g. spanking, privilege removal, reasoning, etc.), as well as strategies for administration of these tactics. Within this literature there are two clear gaps: (a) measurement of parents' perspectives, while minimizing the importance of children's point-of-view, and (b) over-emphasis on frequency of discipline administration, while ignoring perception of discipline fairness.;In order to mend these gaps, the Scale of Parental Discipline (SPaD) was developed. This instrument was designed to assess children's perceptions about the discipline they have experienced, including perceptions of frequency and fairness. The first psychometric analyses were conducted for the author's Master's Thesis (Skillings, 2003). This study focused on confirmatory factor analysis; results suggested construct validity for a four-factor solution, as well as internal consistency within factors. The factors represented the following types of discipline: traditional discipline (privilege as the item hierarchy (i.e. based upon log-odds probability of endorsement) matched theoretical expectations and previous research. Overall results were strongly suggestive of reliability and validity for the measurement of children's perceptions of frequency and fairness.;After Study One was complete, Study Two was initiated in order to analyze the construct validity of the SPaD, following the nomological net approach of Cronbach and Meehl (1955). Scores from the SPaD were compared to those of other well-known measures of social desirability, childhood psychopathology, and parental distress. There was a very low or null relationship between SPaD and social desirability scores. As previous research indicated, childhood psychopathology and parental distress were greater for those children who had experienced high levels of harsh discipline (i.e. psychological control, abusive physical punishment, deprivation). These results were consistent with theoretical expectations and previous research, and they demonstrate construct validity for the Scale of Parental Discipline.;Overall results of this dissertation were strongly suggestive of reliability and validity for the measurement of both frequency and fairness of discipline. The Scale of Parental Discipline appears to be an effective measure of children's perceptions of their parents' uses of discipline.