Development and validation of a questionnaire in parenting patterns : evidence from Tamil culture in Northern Sri Lanka

Adolescent health issues such as substance abuse, high risk sexual behaviours and psychosocial problems are becoming a threat globally. The World Health Organization has identified parenting interventions as a strategy to improve adolescent health. This study aimed to develop and validate a tool to understand parenting practices for Northern Province Tamil culture in Sri Lanka. A Parenting Patterns Questionnaire (PPQ) with three subscales for three parenting dimensions; ‘Connection’, ‘Control’ and ‘Respect’, was constructed in accordance with parenting styles and parenting tools used in Western countries and by expert opinion. Item analysis was conducted to establish the internal consistency and exploratory factor analysis was conducted to check whether the items are assigned to the correct subscales. Construct validity of the PPQ was confirmed by demonstration of a moderate to good correlation with two hypothetical constructs, namely the wellbeing of the children demonstrated by the scores of Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and educational performance of the children assessed by the marks of previous term examination. The internal consistency of the PPQ and subscales was satisfactory (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.7). The test re-test reliability also was satisfactory for PPQ (Pearson’s correlation Coefficient > 0.9 for selected items). The correlations between the parenting quality assessed by the PPQ and the above mentioned constructs showed a moderate correlation (r > 0.3). This tool (PPQ) has the potential to be used by researchers to assess parenting in selected dimensions (‘connection’, ‘control’ and ‘respect’) in Sri Lankan Tamil culture.