Revision of the Multidimensional Assessment of Parenting Scale (MAPS) in an Ethnoracially Diverse National Sample

Parenting predicts a wide range of developmental outcomes. Thus, improved assessment of parenting has critical implications for screening into services, identifying additional needs during interventions, and monitoring intervention progress. While there is rising interest in family research focusing on racial and ethnic diversity, there is an unmet need for valid, reliable, and equitable assessments of parenting in racially and ethnically diverse populations. The Multidimensional Assessment of Parenting Scale (MAPS) is a measure of parenting with strong psychometric properties. Despite its high utility, the MAPS is limited in that it was developed in a predominantly White sample (87%). Yet, minoritized racial and ethnic groups currently comprise 40% of the U.S. population. Therefore, this project extended the utility of the MAPS to racially and ethnically diverse families by (a) refining MAPS items using n = 100 cognitive interviews with parents from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds to enhance racial and ethnic representation, (b) quantitatively establishing the Revised MAPS factor structure, and (c) assessing reliability, validity, and measurement invariance by race and ethnicity among N = 1,699 parents (25.2% non-Hispanic White, 22.2% non-Hispanic Asian, 23.8% non-Hispanic Black, and 25.6% Hispanic). Following revisions guided by cognitive interviews to improve and add items, the factor structure of the MAPS was replicated in the Revised MAPS. Further, measurement invariance, reliability, and validity of the Revised MAPS were partially supported. Using a multimethod approach, this revision increases the utility of the MAPS by extension to this historically underrepresented segment of the U.S. population.