Conceptualizing Parenting Wisdom: Scale Development and Validation

Abstract

This paper introduces the construct of parenting wisdom and describes the development and preliminary validation of the Parenting Wisdom Scale (PWS), a new instrument designed to measure the construct. In a first study, a preliminary version of the PWS was developed and administered to a sample of 137 parents in Greece. The final version of the scale demonstrated the predicted four-factor solution and good internal consistency for the total and subscale scores. PWS correlated in expected ways with the convergent, discriminant and concurrent validity measures. In a second replication study, the above findings were cross-validated with an independent sample of 312 parents. In total, results are encouraging and seem to support the usefulness of the PWS to assess parenting wisdom.

Keywords:

• Parenting
• Parenting Wisdom Scale
• validation
• wisdom

Acknowledgments

We thank Ms. Amalia Zervou (BA, MA in English Language and Literature) for providing help with the translation of the measures used in the studies as well as for proof reading the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

Christina Boumpouli has received doctoral scholarship from the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY). The other two authors confirm that they have no financial or nonfinancial competing interests to report.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, C. B., upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This research is co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund-ESF) through the Operational Programme “Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning” in the context of the project “Strengthening Human Resources Research Potential via Doctorate Research – 2nd Cycle” (MIS-5000432), implemented by the State Scholarships Foundation (ΙΚΥ). The funder had no involvement in the design and conduct of the study; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; or in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.