top of page

Parenting Assessments

Stressed Out & Exhausted?
​

Parenting style assessments offer insight into parental behaviors and their impact on children. They promote self-awareness, inform decision-making, and facilitate communication between caregivers.

 

By identifying strengths and opportunities for growth, they guide improvements in parenting practices, ultimately fostering healthier parent-child relationships and children's well-being.

 

Parenting stress assessments are invaluable for identifying stressors, preventing burnout, and improving parent-child relationships. By pinpointing sources of stress, parents can develop coping strategies and seek support, enhancing their well-being and indirectly benefiting their children.

 

These assessments also inform tailored intervention strategies, such as counseling or support groups, to address specific needs. 

Try one or more of the tests for parents below:

Autism Parenting Stress Index

                     13 Questions
 

Parenting Scale

                     50 Questions

​

Parent Stress Scale

                     18 Questions

​

​

_edited.jpg
Clinical Information on Assessments

 

Autism Parenting Stress Index

Click to take the assessment

  • Approximate time: 3-5 minutes to respond to 13 questions.

  • It contains 13 common experiences that parents of children with ASD frequently encounter.

  • The internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) of the initial version of the APSI was calculated α = 0.82 for children with ASD.

  • Scoring:

    • The index asks the parent to choose how stressful each item is for them using a five-point Liker t scale ranging from 0 (not stressful) to 4 (so stressful sometimes we feel we cannot cope).

    • The total score ranges from 0 to 52; higher scores indicate greater parenting stress.

    • Three domains: (a) core autism symptoms (questions: 1,2, 11, 12, 13), (b) co-morbid behaviors (questions: 3, 4, 5, 6), and (c) co-morbid physical issues (questions: 7, 8, 9, 10).


Parenting Scale

Click to take the assessment

  • A measure of parenting in discipline situations for young children.

  • This assessment was not specifically designed for neurodiverse children but may be helpful to identify helpful and unhelpful parenting styles. 

  • Approximate time: 5-7 minutes to respond to 30 questions 

  • Each question provides seven options, each representing different levels of a parenting aspect. Parents select the option that best reflects their parenting style over the past two months. 

  • There are three factors on the Parenting Scale: Laxness (LX), Over-reactivity (OR), and Hostility (HS). There are several items that are not on a factor (NF).

  • Scoring:

    • All 30 items are scored on a 7 point scale, with low scores indicating functional parenting and high scores indicating dysfunctional parenting. ​

    • The recommended clinical cut-off scores are:

      • Mothers: Laxness 3.6, Over-reactivity 4.0, Hostility 2.4; and Total Score 3.2.

      • Fathers: Laxness 3.4, Over-reactivity 3.9, Hostility 3.5; and Total Score 3.2.

​

Parent Stress Scale

Click to take the assessment

  • Attempts to measure the levels of stress experienced by parents. Takes into account positive and negative aspects of parenting.

  • Higher levels of parental stress related to:
    • Lower levels of parental sensitivity to the child
    • Poorer child behavior
    • Lower quality of parent – child relationship.

  • Approximate time: 4-5 minutes to respond to 18 questions.

  • Scoring:

  • Overall possible scores on the scale range from 18 – 90. The higher the score , the higher the measured level of Parental stress

  • We recommend that you take the test before and after therapy to show the before and after results, hopefully indicating improvement.​

​

​

_edited.jpg
bottom of page