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Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI-2.1)

Assessment Rating:
A
A – Psychometrics Well-Demonstrated
See entire scale
Developer(s):

Stephen J. Bavolek, Ph.D. and Richard G. Keene, Ph.D.

Description / Purpose:

The AAPI-2.1 is both a screening tool and an assessment tool that examines risk for practicing abusive and neglecting parenting and child rearing behaviors.

The AAPI-2.1 is a 40-item inventory designed to assess the parenting and child rearing attitudes of adolescents and adult parent and pre-parent populations. Based on the known parenting and child rearing behaviors of abusive parents, responses to the inventory provide an index of risk for practicing behaviors known to be attributable to child abuse and neglect. The AAPI-2.1 is the revised and re-normed version of the original AAPI first developed in 1979.

Responses to the AAPI-2.1 provide an index of risk in five specific parenting and child rearing behaviors:

  • Construct A - Expectations of Children
  • Construct B - Parental Empathy towards Children's Needs
  • Construct C - Use of Corporal Punishment
  • Construct D - Parent-Child Family Roles
  • Construct E - Children's Power and Independence

Target Population: Adolescents 12-19; Adult Parent and Pre-parent Populations

Time to Administer: 10 to 15 minutes

Completed By: Self-administered

Modalities Available: Pen and paper, Online

Scoring Information: Hand scored or scored by online system

Languages Available: Arabic, English, Haitian Creole, Spanish

Training Requirements for Intended Users: Not specified

Availability: Ordering information is available at https://www.nurturingparenting.com/ecommerce/category/5/. The cost depends on the number of measures ordered.

Contact Information

Company: Family Development Resources
Website: assessingparenting.com/assessment/aapi
Email:
Phone: (180) 068-8582 x2

Summary of Relevant Psychometric Research

This tool has received the Measurement Tools Rating of "A – Psychometrics Well-Demonstrated" based on the published, peer-reviewed research available. The tool must have 2 or more published, peer-reviewed studies that have established the measure’s psychometrics (e.g., reliability and validity, sensitivity and specificity, etc.). Please see the Measurement Tools Rating Scale for more information.

Show relevant research...

Lawson, M. A., Alameda-Lawson, T., & Byrnes, E. (2017). Analyzing the validity of the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory for low-income populations. Research on Social Work Practice, 27(4), 441-455. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731514567154

Sample:

Participants — 2,160 low-income parents

Race/Ethnicity — 22% White, 21% Black, 43% Hispanic, 15% Other

Summary:

This study examined the construct and predictive validity of the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI-2) using multiple statistical methods, including exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and latent class analysis. Although the AAPI-2 yielded high reliability coefficients, analyses of the instrument's validity diverged significantly from the results reported by the instrument's developers. Specifically, the instruments' reported five-factor structure was not supported in this study. Moreover, parents' AAPI-2 scores were not associated with child abuse as originally hypothesized. However, when the AAPI-2 was analyzed as a categorical latent variable, the results were useful in identifying parents who were unlikely to abuse or neglect their children.

Strickler, A., Trunzo, A. C., & Kaelin, M. S. (2018). Treatment foster care pre-service trainings: changes in parenting attitudes and fostering readiness. Child & Youth Care Forum, 47(1), 61-79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-017-9418-x

Sample:

Participants — 152

Race/Ethnicity — 70% Black, 28% White, 1 % Native American, 1% Unknown

Summary:

146 participants had complete AAPI-2 pre and post scores. Internal consistency reliability was conducted using Cronbach's alphas for all constructs and were found to be acceptable (a = .66 to .83) except for the fifth construct (a = .44), which may be due to the small number of items in the scale and/or the fact that this construct had three reverse-scored items which are sometimes challenging for participants to interpret.

Conners, N. A., Whiteside-Mansell, L., Deere, D., Ledet, T., & Edwards, M. C. (2006). Measuring the potential for child maltreatment: The reliability and validity of the Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory - 2. Child Abuse & Neglect: The International Journal, 30(1), 39-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2005.08.011

Sample:

Participants — 309 low-income, rural families in a southern U.S. state

Race/Ethnicity — 88% Caucasian, 7% African-American, 2% Hispanic, 2% Multiracial, 1% Other

Summary:

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory - 2 (AAPI-2). Each of the five AAPI-2 scales was (a) examined using factor analysis in order to determine the unidimensionality of the scale, (b) evaluated based on estimates of the scales reliability in order to determine the consistency with which the construct was measured, and (c) when possible, examined to determine if it is related to other constructs in meaningful and expected ways. While the factor structure reported by the developer was not fully confirmed in this sample, there is some evidence that the instrument is measuring at least two of the constructs it purports to measure and that the total score may be useful. Correlations with other instruments measuring parenting behavior and child behavior were significant and in the expected direction, offering some support for the validity of the AAPI-2. 

Date Reviewed: July 2020 (Originally reviewed in July 2020)