PROJECT SUMMARY Parenting plays a crucial role in youth development, influencing a myriad of health behaviors. As a result, parenting is a common focus of interventions aimed at improving youth health outcomes. Effective parenting interventions and their study necessitate robust assessments of parenting. However, the state of the evidence for psychometric properties of existing parenting assessments is weak. The Multidimensional Assessment of Parenting Scale (MAPS) is a measure of parenting exhibiting strong psychometric properties. However, the utility of the MAPS remains limited by the omission of certain parenting dimensions, as indicated by preliminary studies. Other limitations impeding progress in measuring parenting include: 1) underutilization of qualitative methods, 2) the need for multi-informant reports (e.g., youth or coparent), 3) the absence of validated ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) of parenting, 4) limited use of advanced psychometric methods, and 5) underrepresentation of ethnoracially minoritized and non-English speaking parents, as well as fathers, in parenting research and theories. Further, preliminary data from my current R36 project show that the MAPS can be enhanced through revisions informed by mixed methods, which resulted in better measurement quality indices and measurement equivalence of the MAPS by parent ethnoracial identities. Therefore, in this project, I propose introducing multiple innovations to optimize the MAPS. Aim 1 involves conducting qualitative interviews with parents and experts, followed by qualitative and text mining analyses of interview data, to inform revisions to the MAPS and identify unmeasured parenting domains, which will yield the MAPS-S for self-report. Aim 2 will focus on developing and field testing the MAPS-S for coparent (MAPS-C) and youth (MAPS-Y) report through cognitive interviews and national surveys. The objective is to examine factor structures, reliability, and measurement equivalence in two independent samples to ensure the replication of strong psychometric properties. In Aim 2, Spanish measures will be piloted in an additional national sample. Aim 3 employs item response theory to develop an optimal EMA MAPS, which will be tested with parents and youth dyads. Across all aims, I will examine relations between MAPS subscales, MAPS agreement, discrepancy, and youth health outcomes to establish convergent validity. This project is innovative in its use of novel approaches, including iterative, multimethod, multi-informant, EMA, and data-informed methods, to develop and validate novel parenting scales. By involving parents from ethnoracially diverse and Spanish speaking parents, including fathers, we will be able to accurately determine when and how to intervene and prevent negative or ineffective parenting in diverse families. The assessments emerging from this study can be clinically employed to screen, target, and monitor negative or ineffective parenting in interventions and prevention programs with families from diverse backgrounds. Ultimately, this project will contribute to the advancement of parenting research and interventions aimed at improving youth health outcomes more broadly.

PROJECT NARRATIVE This project addresses the limitations in current parenting assessments by introducing innovative approaches and advanced psychometric methods. The objectives include revising the Multidimensional Assessment of Parenting Scale (MAPS) through qualitative interviews and text mining analyses, developing and cross- validating revised MAPS versions for self-report (MAPS-S), coparent-report (MAPS-C), and youth-report (MAPS-Y), and developing optimal ecological momentary assessment (EMA) versions of the MAPS for parent- coparent and parent-youth dyads. Capitalizing on ethnoracially diverse national samples including fathers and piloting Spanish measures will further ensure the scales’ robustness and generalizability, thereby advancing parenting research and interventions aimed at improving youth health outcomes.