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Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire - Short Form (PSDQ)


What it is​

The PSDQ Short Form is a 32-item self-report measure of parenting style, based on Baumrind's tripartite model of parenting (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive). It was developed by Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, and Hart (2001) as a shortened version of the original 62-item Parenting Practices Questionnaire, retaining the items with the strongest psychometric properties.

The questionnaire asks parents to reflect on how they typically behave with their child, providing a snapshot of warmth, structure, and discipline strategies. It is widely used in research and applied settings to understand parenting practices and their relationship to child development, behaviour, and family functioning.

How is it used​

  • Completed by parents or primary caregivers about their own parenting behaviours
  • Typically used with parents of children aged approximately 3–14, though it has been adapted across a wide age range
  • Takes approximately 5–10 minutes to complete
  • Useful as part of family assessment, parenting interventions, or research into the parent–child relationship
  • Can be used at baseline and follow-up to track change in response to parenting support or family therapy

The PSDQ captures three parenting style dimensions:

  • Authoritative: warmth, reasoning, democratic participation, and good-natured/easy-going behaviour
  • Authoritarian: verbal hostility, corporal punishment, non-reasoning/punitive strategies, and directiveness
  • Permissive: lack of follow-through, ignoring misbehaviour, and lack of confidence in parenting

What do the scores mean?​

Each item is rated on a five-point scale from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Subscale scores are typically calculated as the sum (or mean) of items in each dimension. Higher scores on a given subscale reflect a stronger tendency toward that parenting style.

Subscale composition and score ranges:

  • Authoritative (15 items: 1, 3, 7, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 31, 32): score range 15–75
  • Authoritarian (12 items: 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 15, 18, 20, 22, 25, 28, 30): score range 12–60
  • Permissive (5 items: 2, 6, 11, 19, 21): score range 5–25

The PSDQ does not produce a single overall score and does not have formal clinical cut-offs. Scores are best interpreted by considering the relative strength of each style for an individual parent and, where helpful, comparing across time points. Higher authoritative scores combined with lower authoritarian and permissive scores are generally associated with more positive child outcomes in the literature.

Developer​

The PSDQ was developed by Clyde C. Robinson, Barbara Mandleco, Susanne Frost Olsen, and Craig H. Hart (2001), based on earlier work by Diana Baumrind on parenting styles.

References:

Robinson, C. C., Mandleco, B., Olsen, S. F., & Hart, C. H. (2001). The Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ). In B. F. Perlmutter, J. Touliatos, & G. W. Holden (Eds.), Handbook of Family Measurement Techniques: Vol. 3. Instruments & Index (pp. 319–321). Sage.

Robinson, C. C., Mandleco, B., Olsen, S. F., & Hart, C. H. (1995). Authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting practices: Development of a new measure. Psychological Reports, 77(3), 819–830.

Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns of parental authority. Developmental Psychology, 4(1, Pt. 2), 1–103.