The Self-efficacy for Parenting Adolescents Scale: Development and Initial Validation

Adolescence can be a difficult developmental period for children and their parents. During this time, parents need to develop new skills, and their perceived self-efficacy for parenting their adolescent may decrease. However, few measures exist that assess self-efficacy for parenting adolescents, and of those that do, none have been demonstrated to be psychometrically sound. The purpose of this study was to develop the Self-Efficacy for Parenting Adolescents Scale (SEPA), a measure that assesses confidence in enacting behaviors representative of successful adolescent parenting. A preliminary version of the self-efficacy scale was developed in Study 1, which was completed by 305 parents of adolescents. An EFA was conducted and a four-factor model with reduced items was recommended. In Study 2, a CFA was conducted on a revised version of SEPA which provided further support for a four-factor model and initial evidence of convergent and incremental validity. We conclude that SEPA is a promising new measure for assessing self-efficacy for parenting adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18.