Psychometric Properties of the Spanish Version of the Parenting Self-Regulation Scale

Abstract

The literature shows that the study of parenting focuses primarily on par-enting styles and behaviors, but minimally on the motivation of caregiv-ers. Therefore, the self-regulatory approach to parenting has only recently begun to be investigated. In this study, the Spanish version of the Parent-ing Regulation Focus Scale (PRFS) was adapted and validated in a sample of caregivers (N = 844) of children under five years of age. Exploratory Struc-tural Equation Modeling (ESEM) yielded satisfactory goodness-of-fit indices for the instrument when some items were omitted; hence, the promotion and prevention dimensions contained six items each. Group comparisons revealed that college-educated caregivers have a greater focus on promo-tion in parenting, whereas no differences were found regarding the focus on prevention. The results of this study pave the way for a deeper understand-ing of the parental regulatory approach in Latin America, thereby contrib-uting to the cross-cultural analysis of parenting dynamics.