Development and validation of a short version of the parental authority questionnaire

A short version of Buri's (1991) 30-item Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ), a widely used measure of Baumrind's (1971) model of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles, has been developed in this study. The participants were 3,025 middle and high school students from Oman. The sample was randomly divided into 2 subsamples. The first sample (N = 1,504) was used for the development of the short version, and the second sample (N = 1,521) served as the validation sample. The results indicate that a reduced 20-item PAQ fit the data better than the 30-item PAQ. The short version evidenced adequate validity and internal consistency. It was discussed and confirmed that the short version of the PAQ utilizes Baumrind's model of parenting styles as well as the original long version of the PAQ, and functions appropriately. This result is consistent with previous research. Keywords: parenting styles, Parental Authority Questionnaire, validity, reliability, scale development, adolescents.