A CROSS-VALIDATION OF THE PARENT PERCEPTION INVENTORY

The Parent Perception Inventory (PPI; Hazzard & Christensen, no date; Hazzard, Christensen, & Margolin, 1983) was developed as a measure of children's perceptions of parental behavior, particularly for use in behavioral family treatment outcome studies. In the present cross-validation study, the PPI was administered to children in 12 physically abusive families, 15 child problem behavior families (clinic-referred for child behavior problems) and 16 nondistressed families. All of these families were single parent, mother-headed, and impoverished. Data were gathered in the families' homes. Data from the present sample were compared with data from the original sample of Hazzard et al. (1983). Children from nondistressed families in the present study viewed their mothers' behavior more negatively than those in Hazard et al.'s original sample. It seems that how children perceive their mothers may be affected by the extent of the mother's child-rearing burden and by the general disadvantage of the family, e.g., low socioeconomic status. Small but significant correlations between child report of parent behavior on the PPI and parent report of child behavior offer some convergent validity for the instrument.