Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory AAPI Description

Description - The AAPI-2 is an inventory designed to assess the parenting and child rearing attitudes of adult and adolescent parent and pre-parent populations. Based on the known parenting and child rearing behaviors of abusive parents, responses to the inventory provide an index of risk for practicing behaviors known to be attributable to child abuse and neglect. The AAPI-2 is the revised and re-normed version of the original AAPI first developed in 1979.

Sub-Scales - Responses to the AAPI-2 provide an index of risk in five specific parenting and child rearing behaviors:

Intended Populations - Both adult parent and pre-parent populations as well as adolescent parent and pre-parent populations. Adolescents as young as 13 years old can respond to the AAPI-2.

Forms and Items - There are two forms of the AAPI-2 – Form A and Form B. Each inventory has 40 different items presented in a five-point Likert scale from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.

Administration - The AAPI-2 takes approximately 20 minutes to be administered. It can be administered in a small group setting or individually. Individuals circle the response (SA = Strong Agree; A = Agree; U = Uncertain; D = Disagree; SD = Strongly Disagree) they feel best represents their parenting attitudes.

Reading Level - The AAPI-2 has an assessed fifth grade reading level. The AAPI-2 can be read orally to non-readers.

Scoring - Responses to the items of the AAPI-2 each carry a numerical value of 1 to 5 determined by placing the plastic scoring stencil over the test form. The numerical values are recorded on the AAPI-2 Profile Worksheet for each of the five subscales.

The five subscales total raw scores are calculated by adding the numerical values. Raw score totals for each subscale are converted into standard scores forming the norm tables of the AAPI. The standard scores are plotted on the AAPI-2 Parenting Profile providing an index of risk for abusive and/or neglecting behaviors.

Norm Tables - Norm tables are available for parent and adolescent parent and adolescent non-parent populations.

Validity and Reliability - The AAPI-2 , like its predecessor the AAPI, is a validated and reliable inventory used to assess parenting attitudes. Over 20 years of research with the AAPI indicate:

Abusive parents express significantly (p<.001) more abusive attitudes than non-abusive parents.
Males, regardless of status (abusive or non-abusive) express significantly (p<.001) more abusive parenting attitudes than females.
Adolescents with histories of being abused express significantly (p<.001) more abusive parenting attitudes than non-abused adolescents.
Male adolescents express significantly (p<.001) more abusive parenting attitudes than female adolescents.
Each of the five parenting constructs of the AAPI-2, forming the five sub-scales of the inventory, show significant diagnostic and discriminatory validity. That is, responses to the inventory discriminate between the parenting behaviors of known abusive parents and the behaviors of non-abusive parents. These findings hold true for abused adolescents and non-abused adolescents.

AAPI-2 Description