Measuring parenting stress in parents of children with chronic illness: a psychometric study

Like many other chronic conditions, parents of children with bowel disease rate significantly higher parenting stress than those with healthy children. Heightened parenting stress has been strongly associated with higher ratings of functional disability, and poorer quality of life (Cousino et al., 2012; Pinquart, 2018); as well as poorer outcomes for interventions focused on symptoms (Langer et al., 2009; Mullins et al., 2007).

To enable greater understanding of parenting stress and effective treatment, it is essential to first establish effective measures to capture it. A number of systematic reviews (Eccleston et al. 2012; 2015; Golfenshtein et al., 2016; Law et al., 2014) have indicated that parenting stress is amenable to intervention, however, due to the poor quality of the evidence it is not clear which techniques are most effective. In the present study we aim to investigate the two most popular measures of parenting stress to determine their validity in this population and improve future research.

Organisation/Institution: Murdoch University
Study purpose/aims: To evaluate the validity of the 2 most popular parenting stress measures for those with chronically ill children, both of which currently lack adequate support to be widely used.
Location of study: Anywhere with internet access
What is involved for the participant? A 15 minute self-report questionnaire, comprised of 10 demographic questions, 2 parenting stress scales and a measure of functional disability.

To receive more information, participants should contact: Amber English (student researcher) email: [email protected], phone: 0419 784 880