Background

Parents are especially important for young teens, and they have a considerable impact on adolescents’ development and social adaptation. One of the important factors for understanding parental influence on children’s development is the concept of “parenting style”.

Objectives

Due to the lack of standard instruments to measure parenting style, this study was conducted to assess the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Parenting Style-Four Factor Questionnaire (PS-FFQ).

Material and methods

The study included 992 mothers of female students in Tabriz, Iran. Construct validity was assessed by using exploratory factor analyses with varimax rotation and principal component analysis extraction method and by confirmatory factor analysis. In addition, the feasibility of the measure was judged based on ceiling and floor effects. Reliability of the questionnaire was determined using internal consistency.

Results

The exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis confirmed four factors, which included 30 of the 32 items and also accounted for 32.91% of the variance. In the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), the fit indices indicated: Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.92, Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) = 0.90, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.04, providing a strong fit to the data. The internal consistency for the overall scale was acceptable (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.70).

Conclusions

The PS-FFQ provides a more comprehensive assessment of parenting styles of adolescents’ parents and may be suitable for wider use. It could also be applicable for psychologists and researchers to examine and identify parenting styles.