Evaluating the Reliability, Validity, and Predictive Utility of Instruments for Identifying Parenting Support Needs

Parents sometimes need extra support to help them manage their child’s behaviour or emotional needs. To make sure this support is offered to the right families, we first need good tools—short questionnaires that can indicate when a parent may benefit from a parenting programme.

This work will examine a set of these questionnaires to check whether they work well. We will look at whether the questions measure what they are supposed to, whether the results are reliable, and whether they work in a similar way for different types of families. This last point is important for fair access to services.

We will also explore whether parents who score highly on these tools are more likely to take part in parenting support programmes. The findings will help ensure that families are identified accurately and fairly, so support can be offered when it is most needed, ultimately improving outcomes for parents and children.