Psychological Reports, 1996,79,643-646. O Psychological Reports 1996 DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARENT SELF-EVALUATION INSTRUMENT' KREG J. EDGMON, H. WALLACE GODDARD CATHERINE S. SOLHEIM, AND MARK B. WHITE Sttmmay.-Parenting measures have been used most commonly €or research and chical evaluation, with little practical application for parent self-evaluation and edu- cauon. To help parents assess their parenting strengths and skills and be better di- rected in their information seeking the Parent Self-evaluation Instrument was devel- oped. The framework and dimensions of this scale are based on the National Exten- sion Parent Education Model. A panel of 23 parenring experts reviewed the scale for content vahdiry. Evaluations of the scales' validty were consisten~l~ high. Substantial scholarly attention has been devoted to developing measures of parent effectiveness (3, 6); however, parenting measures have been used most commonly for research and clinical evaluation with little practical appli- cation for parents' self-evaluation and education (4). To help parents assess their parenting strengths and skills and be better drected in their information seelung the authors initiated the development of a Parent Self-evaluation Instrument. The National Extension Parent Edu- cation Model was chosen as a basis for the inventory because it is "a con- ceptual model based on the best available research data that identifies the critical planning practices" (p. 10) of parenting and parent education (5). Categories and practices are summarized in Table 1 below. Evaluation of the National Extension Parent Education Model has been reported elsewhere (2). The National Extens~on Parent Education Model identifies six catego- ries for effective parentmg-Care for Self, Understand, Guide, Nurture, Mo- tivate, and Advocate-and describes priority parenting practices for each category. Items for the Parent Self-evaluation Instrument were developed to represent each of the priority practices contained in the six main categories of the model. Accordmg to Anastasi (I), for a test to have content validity one must systematically examine the test items "to determine whether it cov- ers a representative sample of the behavior domain to be measured" (p. 140). Accordingly, a panel of parenting experts was assembled to judge how 'An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meetin of the National Council on Famil Relations, November, 1995, Portland, Oregon. Please adiress correspondence and requests tor reprints to H. Wallace Goddard, 203 Spidle Hall, Auburn University, AL 36849- 5604 or send a request via e-mail (hgoddard@spidle2.humsci.auburn.edu).