Early Childhood Research Quarterly 17 (2002) 356–373 Validation of a multidimensional assessment of parenting styles for low-income African-American families with preschool children Kathleen Coolahan ∗ , Christine McWayne, John Fantuzzo, Suzanne Grim Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA Abstract This study examined the construct and concurrent validity of the Parenting Behavior Questionnaire- Head Start (PBQ-HS), a modification of the PBQ (Hart, Nelson, Robinson, Olsen, & McNeilly-Choque, 1998), with low-income African-American families with preschoolers. The study also investigated whether parenting styles differed by caregiver characteristics. The sample included 465 primary care- givers of urban Head Start children. Factor analyses yielded Active–Responsive, Active–Restrictive, and Passive–Permissive parenting dimensions. Concurrent validity data on Limit-Setting, Warmth, and Di- rectiveness revealed similarities between the Active–Responsive and Active–Restrictive dimensions and Baumrind’s authoritative and authoritarian dimensions, respectively. The Passive–Permissive dimension and Baumrind’s permissive style differed. Low education levels and single parenthood were associated with Active–Restrictive and Passive–Permissive parenting. Implications for research and practice are discussed. © 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. Recent national statistics indicate that key demographic factors put a substantial number of young children at risk for poor performance on school readiness measures. Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 (ECLS-K; U.S. Department of Education, 2000) link economic disadvantage, minority status, low maternal educational attainment, and being raised in a single-parent family with performance deficits in the domains of cognitive skills and knowledge, social skills, health, and approaches to learning. These demographic risk factors are also associated with home environments that are less supportive of early learning (Fantuzzo, Tighe, & Childs, 2000), and therefore threaten the learning readiness of a significant number of American children. ∗ Corresponding author. Present address: 305 Randle Court, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034, USA. E-mail address: kmcoolahan@aol.com (K. Coolahan). 0885-2006/02/$ – see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. PII:S0885-2006(02)00169-2