DEVELOPMENT OF A PARENTING ALLIANCE INVENTORY

Abstract

Reports the initial factor structure, reliability, and preliminary validity of the Parenting Alliance Inventory (PAI; Abidin, 1988). The 20-item PAI assesses the degree to which parents believe that they have a sound working relationship with their child's other parent. Our sample consisted of 512 parents (321 mothers and 191 fathers) and 78 teachers/child care providers. The PAI proved to have high internal consistency and showed no significant difference between the responses of men and women. The PAI discriminated accurately between couples who were married, separated, and divorced. In a manner consistent with its hypothesized nature, the PAI correlated significantly with established measures of marital satisfaction, parenting stress, and parenting style. In addition, the PAI correlated significantly with measures of the target child's positive adjustment and social competence. Although statistically significant, the order of magnitude of these relations are small, and the results need to be interpreted with caution.