Psychometric properties of the parenting belief scale in a multi-country sample of parents from high-income countries.

Background: Parents' beliefs about how private/public their parenting role is and their acceptability of the use of corporal punishment as a disciplinary measure have been associated with how parents raise their children and their willingness to seek support. However, there are no reliable and valid instruments measuring these beliefs.

Objective: This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Parenting Belief Scale, a self-reported brief measure targeting parents' perception of parenting as a private concern and their attitudes towards the use of corporal punishment.

Participants And Setting: Participants were 6949 parents from several high-income countries (i.e., Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Australia, and the UK) who completed the International Parenting Survey, an online cross-sectional survey focused on parents' self-report of their parenting, children, and family.

Methods: This study evaluated the internal consistency, factor structure (i.e., exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses), and convergent and discriminant validity of the Parenting Belief Scale.

Results: Findings indicated that this scale was a relatively reliable measure to evaluate parents' perceived privacy in their role and acceptability of corporal punishment. A two-factor structure was confirmed by both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Correlations with scales of parenting practices supported the convergent and discriminant validity of the Parenting Belief Scale.

Conclusions: This study supported the use of the Parenting Belief Scale across high-income countries to evaluate parenting beliefs in influencing parenting practices and parents' help-seeking behaviours.