Parental Modernity Scale ID.pdf

NICHD SECCYD—Wisconsin
PARENTAL MODERNITY SCALE
Reference
Schaefer, E. S., & Edgerton, M. (1985). Parent and child correlates of parental modernity. In I. E.
Sigel (Ed.), Parental belief systems: The psychological consequences for children (pp. 287-318).
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Description
The Parental Modernity Scale, identified as Ideas about Raising Children in the site-specific
questionnaire battery, is a 30-item measure of traditional, authoritarian parental beliefs and
progressive, democratic beliefs. Each item is rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 = strongly
disagree to 5 = strongly agree. Two scores are computed, Progressive Beliefs and Traditional
Beliefs.
Administration: 54 months
This measure was administered to mothers at 54 months (n = 90) during the common protocol
lab visit. It also was administered as part of the common protocol (identified as Ideas about
Raising Children) to mothers at 1 month and Grades 1 & 4; to fathers/partners at Grades 1 & 4;
to child care providers at 6, 15, 24, 36, & 54 months; to after-school care providers at Grades 1,
3, 4, & 5; and to lab friend mothers at Grades 4 & 6.
Scoring: Schaefer & Edgerton (1985)
Progressive Beliefs
Sum of 8 items: 6, 11, 13, 15, 20, 23, 27, 29. In cases with internally missing data (items not
answered), the sums were computed after imputation of the missing values: # items on scale / #
actually answered, multiplied by the sum obtained from the answered items. A higher score
reflects progressive (modern) beliefs about childrearing and education.
M54PMPRO
N = 89, M = 33.71, SD = 3.62, range = 22-40, α = .69
Traditional Beliefs
Sum of 22 items: 1-5, 7-10, 12, 14, 16-19, 21, 22, 24-26, 28, 30. In cases with internally missing
data (items not answered), the sums were computed after imputation of the missing values: #
items on scale / # actually answered, multiplied by the sum obtained from the answered items. A
higher score reflects traditional (strict, conservative) beliefs about childrearing and education.
M54PMTRA
N = 89, M = 56.12, SD = 13.12, range = 26-89.05, α = .85
Total Traditional Beliefs
To be consistent with the scoring for this measure in the NICHD study’s common data set, we
also computed a Total Traditional Beliefs score as the sum of the Traditional items and the
Progressive items, with the Progressive items reversed. In cases with internally missing data
(items not answered), the sums were computed after imputation of the missing values: # items on
scale / # actually answered, multiplied by the sum obtained from the answered items. A higher
score reflects more traditional beliefs about raising children.
M54PMTOT
N = 89, M = 70.40, SD = 15.16, range = 38-107, α = .87
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NICHD SECCYD—Wisconsin
Analysis Data Set
SS54MO
Raw Data Set
M54IRC
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