Measuring Parental Conditional Regard in the Domains of Academic Achievement and Emotion Regulation: A German-Language Adaptation of the Parental Conditional Regard Scale

Otterpohl N, Keil AG, Assor A, Stiensmeier-Pelster J. Erfassung von elterlicher bedingter Wertschätzung im Lern- und Leistungsbereich und im Bereich der Emotionsregulation Eine deutschsprachige Adaptation der Parental Conditional Regard Scale (PCR-D). ZEITSCHRIFT FUER ENTWICKLUNGSPSYCHOLOGIE UND PAEDAGOGISCHE PSYCHOLOGIE. 2017;49(2):98-111.Parental conditional regard is a widely used parenting practice to foster desired child behavior in the domains of academic achievement and emotion regulation. This practice involves parents providing more attention and affection than usual when their children enact desired behaviors or attributes and providing less attention and affection than usual when their children do not. However, since parental conditional regard is negatively associated with psychosocial adjustment (e.g., self-esteem and emotion regulation) as well as academic achievement, it is necessary to develop a diagnostic instrument that enables researchers to assess parental conditional regard. In the present study, we tested a German adaptation of the Parental Conditional Regard Scale (PCR; Roth, Assor, Niemiec, Ryan & Deci, 2009) in two samples of German adolescents (N = 144; N = 293; 10-17 years). Results revealed the expected factor structure, excellent internal consistencies, and acceptable retest reliabilities. The German PCR revealed the expected correlations between parental conditional regard and important validity criteria, such as emotion regulation, self-esteem, and school grades. Tests of measurement invariance indicated no differences between boys and girls