Assessing a new scale to measure parental functioning: Outcomes from mothers at child-health clinics of a university teaching hospital in Benin City, Nigeria.

Abstract

This study was conducted primarily to investigate the basic psychometric properties of a new instrument, the Parenting-an-Infant Competence Scale (PICS), with a sample of middle- and upper-income Nigerian mothers. A secondary aim was to produce a foundation for comparisons with other parents. Data were obtained from 184 mothers who attended child-health clinics at a university hospital in Benin City, Edo State. Most of the item-level attributes of the PICS were desirable, and exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) revealed four distinct factors: resilience, support and effectiveness, satisfaction as a mother, and mental and physical well-being. For the most part, the mothers reported positive functioning on all four factors. The results indicated that the PICS had more desirable psychometric attributes than a similar scale, the Barkin Index of Maternal Functioning (BIMF). The satisfactory performance of the PICS with a specific sample in Nigeria establishes the possibility that the scale could serve as a foundation for assessing and comparing other parents in Nigeria as well as parents in other countries-including countries that, unlike Nigeria, do not have a collectivist orientation.