A Psychometric Investigation of the Parent Engagement in Evidence-Based Services Questionnaire With a Diverse Community Sample

Public Significance Statement Results from this article suggest that the Parent Engagement in Evidence-Based Services (PEEBS) may be a reliable and valid parent-report measure, rooted in the theory of planned behavior, for assessing parent consumers' intentions for engaging in youth evidence-based services (EBS). Given the large and perennial public mental health need for improving youth services, the PEEBS and measures like it may be crucial for forthcoming EBS dissemination and implementation efforts. A complementary approach for increasing the uptake of evidence-based services (EBS) is to focus on consumers, particularly parents within the context of youth mental health service delivery. In addition to recent direct-to-consumer parent research about EBS, advancing our measurement of parental perceptions might also benefit the field. The present study psychometrically examines the Parent Engagement in Evidence-Based Services (PEEBS). The PEEBS is a parent-report questionnaire, rooted in the theory of planned behavior, previously developed through a mixed-method content validation process for assessing parental beliefs and behavioral intentions for utilizing EBS. With a sample of 351 ethnically diverse parents drawn from several settings, with varying treatment experiences, exploratory factor analysis identified five factors: Evidence-Informed Action, Perceived Behavioral Control, Subjective Norms, Perceived Treatment Barriers, and Knowledge. The PEEBS factors showed acceptable to good internal consistencies and demonstrated expected correlations with conceptually relevant scales of family empowerment, help-seeking attitudes and intentions, and stigmatization about general youth mental health services. It is hoped that these findings may be used in concert with larger quality improvement efforts centered around supporting consumer awareness and demand for youth EBS.