The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) is a 42-question psychological self-report/parent-report assessment tool designed by Dr. Paul Frick[1] The APQ measures several dimensions of parenting important for understanding the causes of conduct problems and delinquency in youth: Positive Reinforcement, Parental Involvement, Inconsistent Discipline, Poor Monitoring and Supervision, and Harsh Discipline.[2] There is no manual for the APQ and is intended to be used by anyone needing to measure parenting behavior.
The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire-Short Form (APQ-9) is a 9-item measure of parenting style based on the three main structures of the APQ: positive parenting, inconsistent discipline and poor supervision. There is no clinician requirement and the APQ-SF can be used by anyone wishing to measure parenting in regards to conduct problems and delinquency.[3]
Evaluation for norms and reliability for the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (table from Youngstrom et al., extending Hunsley & Mash, 2008; *indicates new construct or category)
Criterion
Rating (adequate, good, excellent, too good*)
Explanation with references
Norms
Excellent
Multiple convenience samples and research studies.[4][5]
The correlations between parents on these items were generally moderate (r’s 0.40–0.68, all p < .01) with the exception of items 15 (r = 0.27, p < .01) and 26 (r = − 0.21, p < .01).[6]
Repeatability
Not published
No published studies formally checking repeatability
Validity describes the evidence that an assessment tool measures what it was supposed to measure.
Evaluation of validity and utility for the XXX (table from Youngstrom et al., unpublished, extended from Hunsley & Mash, 2008; *indicates new construct or category)
The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) has furthered the assessment of parenting practices in clinical and research settings [10][11]. Independent investigations have also shown the APQ to be an informative assessment tool. Colder, Lockman, and Wells (1997) used the APQ to study how children’s activity levels moderate the influence of parenting practices on child aggression, finding that poorly monitored active boys and fearful boys who were exposed to harsh discipline exhibited high levels of aggression.[12] The APQ is useful for studying how parenting practices influence disruptive behavioral problems and how interventions are mediated or moderated by parenting[13][14].
