Assessing critical dimensions of the parent–adolescent relationship from multiple perspectives: Development and validation of the Parent-Adolescent Relationship Scale (PARS).

This paper presents two studies outlining the development and validation of a new parent-and adolescent-report measure of the parent-adolescent relationship: the Parent-Adolescent Relationship Scale (PARS).Study 1 involved an exploratory factor analysis on a sample of 256 parents of adolescents aged 11-18 years.Results produced a 20-item measure comprising three subscales, Connectedness, Shared Activities and Hostility, each with high factor loadings (>.60), strong internal consistency (H index = .84to .91 for different age groups) and test-retest reliability (r = .73to .84).Convergent validity was established via correlations between the PARS and established parentadolescent relationship and parenting measures.Discriminant validity was shown via no association between the PARS and a technology use measure.Study 2 involved confirmatory factor analysis with a second sample of parents of adolescents, along with validation of adolescent and emerging adult versions.Equivalence of the models across the three versions was also assessed.Study 2 provided further support for the 3-factor structure, demonstrating configural, metric and scalar invariance across the three self-report versions: parent, adolescent and emerging adult.Results show the PARS is a potentially valuable tool for assessing the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship.Public significance statement: Quality measurement of the parent-adolescent relationship is important in research and clinical settings, however few measures exist to adequately measure this relationship.This paper introduces the Parent-Adolescent Relationship Scale (PARS) with resultsshowing that parent, adolescent and emerging adult versions were equivalent to one another, stable across time, and related to other measures of the parent-adolescent relationship.