Parenting Stress Index-Short Form: psychometric properties of the Spanish version in mothers of children aged 0 to 8 years

The Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) is one of the most commonly used measures of parenting stress both in clinical and research contexts. The PSI-SF is a 36-item, self-report measure with three subscales: Parental Distress (PD), Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction (PCDI), and Difficult Child (DC). The objective of this study was to analyse the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Spanish version of PSI-SF. Two different samples (N = 309) of mothers with children under 8 years old participated in the study. The first sample comprised 203 mothers with difficulties managing their children’s behaviour. The second sample comprised 106 mothers from the general population. Factor structure of the PSI-SF, convergent validity, and differences between groups were analysed. The expected three-factor structure was confirmed for both samples. Findings suggested that the total PSI-SF scale and the three subscales had adequate internal consistency and convergent validity. Differences between both samples, and between age and economic subgroups in the first sample were tested. The Spanish version of the PSI-SF can be considered an adequate measure of parenting stress in mothers of children under 8 years old with difficulties to manage their children’s behaviour. Further studies with extended samples from the general population are needed.