Screening for mental health using adolescent-reported parenting

Background and Objectives: Little is known in primary care practices about the relationship between parenting and adolescent mental health. In addition, current parenting measures have a narrow focus or do not lend themselves to clinical intervention. This study examined the clinical utility of a new instrument measuring adolescent-reported parenting, the Parenting Assessment Scale (PAS), to predict adolescent mental health. Methods: A total of 147 adolescents regularly attending an inner-city clinic were asked to complete the Youth Self Report (YSR), a standard scale measuring mental health, and a PAS for each biological parent. Global scores on the PAS and YSR summarized the reported parenting quality and the adolescents' mental health status. Results: Receiver Operating Characteristics and discrimination analyses showed that the global parenting index was highly predictive of mental health using a z score of .73 (sensitivity = 92.3%, specificity = 88.9%). Conclusions: The PAS may be useful as a screening tool in older, black adolescent females, although further research is needed to clarify its role in the clinical setting.