16th EUSPR Conference and Members’ Meeting

Parental Competencies for Positive Parenting and Their Measurement: A Systematic Review

Not scheduled

15m

CharitéCrossOver/0-0 - Atrium (Virchowweg 6)

Poster Posters day 2

Speaker

Lucía Jiménez (University of Seville)

Description

Background: While the relevance of parental competencies is unanimously recognized in terms of both family assessment and intervention, there is no clear and agreed framework about the dimensions that integrate this construct. The complexity of the concept and the lack of consensus in relation to the dimensions that comprise it is evident in the diversity observed in its assessment. In this framework, a systematic review was carried out with two objectives: to analyze the strategies and tools most commonly used in the assessment of parental competencies; and to identify the dimensions used in the assessment of this construct.
Methods: The identification, description, and analysis of the instruments for the evaluation of parental competencies were carried out following PRISMA recommendations. The initial protocol developed for this systematic review was registered on the Open Science Framework and further updated up to 2023. The databases selected were APA PsycInfo and Medline. This study involved the initial review of a total of 10,030 studies published in journals with periodical publications in English, Spanish, or Dutch (without restrictions on the date of publication). Finally, a total of 151 studies were considered for data extraction.
Results: A wide variety of instruments (n = 214) were identified to assess parental competencies, including self-administered scales and surveys, interviews, and observational tools. A content analysis of the subscales included in these instruments allowed to identify domains at the interpersonal, family-system, and personal levels. This systematic review shows that there are no instruments that assess all parenting domains jointly, demonstrating the scarcity of a theoretical conceptualization of the parental competencies construct.
Discussion: This review highlights the need for multidimensional and comprehensive parental competencies instruments and a theoretical model of parental competencies from a plural, multidimensional, contextual, dynamic, and positive perspective of parenting.