Investigating the psychometric properties of the Parent Support Partner Outcome Tool

ABSTRACT

Parent-to-parent mental health treatment approaches demonstrate a solid evidence base, though a tool to measure changes associated with this innovative service delivery approach has yet to appear in the literature. The Parent Support Partner (PSP) Outcome Tool was developed to evaluate a statewide parent-to-parent service for families of children presenting severe emotional and behavioral challenges. This study explored the factor structure and reliability of the PSP Outcome Tool. Participants were 1,502 Medicaid-eligible parents of children between the ages of 5–19 with SED (82%), I/DD (12%), or both SED and I/DD (5%) who enrolled in and participated in PSP Services across the state of Michigan from 2017 to 2020. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor solution (Bridging Collaborative Relationships, Empowerment, Navigating Resources). Cronbach’s alpha was high (0.95) for the resulting 23-item outcome tool, and the three factors (i.e. Bridging Collaborative Relationships = 0.91, Empowerment = 0.90, Navigating Resources = 0.84). The factor structure of the scale and the need to establish additional validity support (i.e. predictive, convergent, divergent validity) for its use with diverse groups of parents are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Peer-delivered service
• parent support provider
• internal consistency
• exploratory factor analysis

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Barry DeCicco for his assistance and support with statistical analysis.

Disclosure statement

This research is funded through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which may lead to potential financial or business interests for authors 5 and 6 due to their employment with the organization that may be affected by research reported in the enclosed paper. Additionally, author 7 has a business interest in the positive reflection of the service presented in the paper. Authors 1-4 critically examined the edits provided by authors 5-7 to manage potential conflicts arising from their involvement.

Additional information

Funding

The work was a collaboration between Michigan State University and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. It was supported by funds from Substance Abuse and Mental HealthServices Administration, Community Mental Health Block Grant through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (E20222735-001).