Journal of Family Psychology Copyright 1996 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.

1996, Vol. 10, No. 1,45-59 0893-3200/967S3.00

Parenting Stress Among Dual-Earner Mothers and Fathers:

Are There Gender Differences?

Kirby Deater-Deckard Sandra Scarr

University of London University of Virginia

Stress in the parenting role has been found to be related to family functioning and
parenting behavior. However, most research in this area has been conducted with
clinical samples and has not compared parenting stress of mothers and fathers. In this
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

study, 589 married couples with young children (12 to 60 months old) completed the
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (Abidin, 1990) and measures of child-rearing

behaviors and attitudes, social support, and child behavior. The validity of Abidin's
measure and theoretical model was tested, and results were mixed. Small effects were
found for mothers and fathers, and these were moderated by child age and marital
happiness. Stress as a normal consequence of parenting is discussed.

Developmental psychologists have proposed dysfunctional interactions—as measured by the

that stress in the parenting role affects the well-
being of parents and children (Abidin, 1992;
Crnic & Greenberg, 1990). Although there are
numerous definitions of parenting stress, most
include the accessibility and perceived avail-
ability of resources (e.g., support from a spouse)
for parenting relative to the demands of parent-
ing (see Abidin, 1992, and Webster-Stratton,
1990, for a more thorough discussion of defini-
tional issues). Parents' perceptions of their chil-
dren's behavior and their feelings of compe-
tence in parenting are essential elements in this
definition (Mash & Johnston, 1990). However,
few researchers have compared the parenting
stress of mothers and fathers.
Background
Abidin's Parenting Stress Model
Abidin proposed that higher amounts of par-
ent distress, child difficulty, and parent-child
Kirby Deater-Deckard, Institute of Psychiatry,
University of London; Sandra Scarr, Department of
Psychology, University of Virginia.
This research was supported by National Institute
on Child Health and Human Development Grant
R01-HD27383 and by National Institute of Mental
Health Predoctoral and Postdoctoral fellowships.
Correspondence concerning this article should be
addressed to Kirby Deater-Deckard, Institute of Psy-
chiatry, 113 Denmark Hill, Denmark Hill, London
SE5 8AF, United Kingdom.
45
Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI/SF;
Abidin, 1990)—lead to increases in negative,
authoritarian parenting. In turn, this behavior
has a direct and negative impact on the child's
behavior, causing an increase in behavioral ad-
justment problems. There is evidence to support
the PSI/SF model. Parenting stress has been
linked to poverty (Webster-Stratton, 1990) and
to maternal depression (Gelfand, Teti, & Fox,
1992). Temperamental difficulty in infancy is
associated with higher child-related parenting
stress among mothers (Beebe, Casey, & Pinto-
Martin, 1993), particularly when coupled with
maternal depression (Gelfand, Teti, & Fox,
1992). Parenting stress has also been found to
be higher among parents of children with atten-
tion deficit hyperactivity disorder (Fischer,
1990), chronic illness (Hauenstein, 1990), and
severe autism (Dumas, Wolf, Fisman, & Culli-
gan, 1991).
Parenting stress is also associated with parent
and child behavior (Abidin, 1992; Vondra &
Belsky, 1993), including insecure attachment
relationships (Teti, Nakagawa, Das, & Wirth,
1991), child abuse (Holden, Willis, & Foltz,
1989), and harsh, authoritarian parenting (Em-
ery & Tuer, 1993). Negative parenting has been
associated with poorer outcomes for children,
such as externalizing behavior problems
(Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992). However,
stressful circumstances and child behavior
problems are not necessarily associated with
parenting stress (Beckman, 1991). Interventions
 46 DEATER-DECKARD AND SCARR
aimed at reducing parenting stress have shown
mixed results (Anastopoulos, Shelton, DuPaul,
& Guevremont, 1993; Telleen, Herzog, & Kil-
bane, 1989).
Is Parenting Stress Normal?
Most research on parenting stress has focused
on the consequences of stressful circumstances
or life events such as child illness or economic
hardship (Webster-Stratton, 1990). However,
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more recent developments have led to an em-
phasis on normal parenting stress (Crnic &
Greenberg, 1990; Rodd, 1993) as well. All par-
ents must cope with the day-to-day stressors of
being a parent—it is part of the job. Crnic and
Greenberg showed that the negative effects of
these daily hassles can accumulate and influ-
ence the quality of parenting and the parent-
child relationship.
Although Abidin's parenting stress theory
and measure has been widely applied to clinical
samples, both are also applicable to nonreferred
families (Abidin, 1983). The factor solution for
the original Parenting Stress Index (PSI; Abi-
din, 1983) was based on two samples: one that
consisted of both normal and clinically-referred
American families and another that consisted of
a birth cohort of Bermudian children (Abidin,
1983). More important, the revised factor solu-
tion for the PSI/SF was derived from two sam-
ples of healthy, nonreferred children. In spite of
this, the PSI/SF theory and instrument have
been underused as research tools for nonre-
ferred, normal families.
Gender Differences and
Marital Happiness
The research on parenting stress has focused
almost exclusively on mothers (Fischer, 1990)
on the basis of an arguable assumption of the
primacy of the parenting role for women with
children (compared to men). Research on fa-
thers has revealed information about similarities
and differences in men's and women's re-
sponses to stressors and how these may be re-
lated to marital satisfaction, parenting behavior,
and child behavior (Gable, Belsky, & Crnic,
1992). Barnett and Baruch (1987) highlighted
two contrasting hypotheses about the role of
parent gender. The social role hypothesis states
that the observed gender differences in family
and work role occupation are caused by social-
ized sex roles. According to this hypothesis, as
men and women willingly share more of the
responsibilities inside and outside the home,
they should appear more similar in their psy-
chological adjustment to the stresses of work
and family life. Alternatively, the sex role hy-
pothesis states that gender moderates the rela-
tionship between role occupation and parenting
stress, whereby observed sex differences are
biological in nature. These alternative hypothe-
ses are addressed in our study.
Studies on sex differences in adults' physio-
logical reactions to experimental stress situa-
tions have revealed some effects; for instance,
men show higher urinary epinephrine levels and
less heart rate reactivity than women (Polefrone
& Manuck, 1987). The research on men's and
women's multiple social roles (e.g., spouse,
parent, and employee) has shown that psycho-
logical involvement and well-being are most
strongly linked to family roles for both fathers
and mothers (Barnett & Baruch, 1987).
The findings from those studies that have
explored parenting stress and parent sex are
mixed; some researchers have found similar
levels of parenting stress among mothers and
fathers, and others have reported differences.
For example, Krauss (1993) noted that mothers
and fathers of disabled children report similar
parenting stress levels. By contrast, parenting
stress appears to be higher among mothers of
chronically ill (Frank et al., 1991; Hauenstein,
1990) and maltreated children (Holden et al.,
1989), although there have been contrary find-
ings (Perry, Sarlo-McGarvey, & Factor, 1992).
In a recent study of parents' separation anxi-
eties, there were few sex differences in mean
levels and correlations with other variables
(Deater-Deckard, Scarr, McCartney, & Eisen-
berg, 1994). In addition to possible gender dif-
ferences in parenting stress, social support and
marital happiness may also have differential
mediating and moderating effects on parenting
stress for mothers and fathers (Frank et al.,
1991; Gable et al., 1992; Krauss, 1993).
The marital relationship is a primary source
of support among married parents (Goldberg,
1993), and marital disharmony has been shown
to be related to disrupted parenting (Belsky,
Rovine, & Fish, 1989). Furthermore, some stud-
ies have shown that marital happiness has a
differential impact on mothers' and fathers' in-
 PARENTING STRESS
teractions with their children (Gable et al.,
1992; Parke & Tinsley, 1987). For example,
mothers in unhappy marriages may show com-
pensation in their parenting, but unhappily mar-
ried fathers may be more punitive and critical in
their parenting or may withdraw from their in-
volvement in the family (Belsky et al., 1989;
Brody, Pellegrini, & Sigel, 1986; Kerig, Cowan,
& Cowan, 1993). It is possible that mothers'
parenting behaviors are more closely tied to
child cues, whereas fathers' behaviors are
linked more closely to the quality of the spousal
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relationship (Stoneman, Brody, & Burke,
1989). Considering the potential moderating ef-
fect of the marital relationship on parent-child
relationships expands the focus from parent-
child dyads to the nature of family triads: moth-
ers, fathers, and children.
Goals
The primary goal of our study was to test the
parenting stress theoretical model by exploring
the potential moderating effect of marital satis-
faction. The goal was to test this model sepa-
rately for mothers and fathers and then to test
for invariance in model fit across child sex and
age groups as well.
A secondary goal was to assess the factorial
validity of the PSI/SF for mothers and fathers,
for parents of boys and girls, and for parents of
younger and older children. Although the PSI
(Abidin, 1983) has been used with diverse pop-
ulations, the assumption of factorial invariance
(e.g., the factor structure is identical for each
group of interest) has not been tested for moth-
er-father comparisons (see Solis & Abidin,
1991, for an example of testing factor invari-
ance between ethnic groups). More generally,
there has been little validation research for the
PSI/SF (Abidin, 1990) because of its recent
publication.
Method
Sample
The sample included 589 married couples who
were participants in a study of 720 families using
center-based child care (Scarr, Phillips, McCartney,
& Abbott-Shim, 1993). Parents were highly educated
(mean years of education = 15.75) and had upper-
middle incomes (median family income = $60,000).
47
Ninety percent were European American and 10%
were African American. The sample included 305
girls and 284 boys (mean age = 30.82 months). All
of the mothers and fathers were employed full time
(>30 hours per week) or were full-time students.1
Procedure
Families with at least one child between the ages
of 12 and 60 months were recruited through 120
for-profit and nonprofit urban and suburban child
care centers at three sites: Boston, MA; Richmond,
VA; and Atlanta, GA. After directors had agreed to
participate, all families in each center were informed
about the study and were given the opportunity to be
excluded; 4% refused to participate. Only children
who had been enrolled >30 hours per week for at
least 4 months were selected. Three boys and three
girls were randomly selected from each center.
Trained research assistants conducted 2-hr, in-
home interviews. Parents completed an audio re-
corded, structured interview and a set of question-
naires. Parents were interviewed separately so that
their responses would not be influenced by the pres-
ence of spouses or children. All participants gave
informed consent in which they were guaranteed
anonymity and confidentiality, and each family was
paid $25.00.
Measures
Variables included demographics, parenting stress,
marital satisfaction, and parent perceptions of child
misbehavior. Descriptive statistics are shown in
Table 1.
Demographic information. We collected infor-
mation on parents' ages, years of education, marital
status, family income, and self-reported ethnicity. A
per capita income variable was calculated and log
transformed because of positive skewness.
Parenting stress. Parents provided ratings of pa-
renting stress using the PSI/SF (Abidin, 1990), a
measure that includes 36 items rated on a 5-point,
Likert-type scale. The three subscales (12 items each)
are Parent Distress, Parent-Child Dysfunctional In-
teraction, and Child Difficulty. The Parent Distress
subscale measures parents' unhappiness in their pa-
1
These families are representative of American
families with dual-earner parents who are paying for
full-time, center-based child care. By recruiting
through centers that were not heavily subsidized by
state and federal sources (<30% of operating bud-
get), the resulting sample of families included only
those who could afford to pay 100% of their child-
care fees.
 48 DEATER-DECKARD AND SCARR

Table 1
Means and Standard Deviations: Parenting Stress and Family, Parent, and
Child Characteristics
Mother Father
Variable n M SD n M SD
a
Parent Distress subscale 583 2.00 0.62 561 1.91 0.61
Child Difficulty subscale" 583 2.15 0.56 561 2.16 0.51
Parent-Child Dysfunction Interaction
subscale" 583 1.48 0.40 561 1.53 0.45
Years of education 588 15.70 2.80 568 15.80 3.10
Parent age 573 32.90 4.80 576 34.90 5.30
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Emotional Support scale 583 4.55 0.58 561 4.38 0.62

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Instrumental Support scale 581 1.68 0.33 559 2.18 0.27

Marital dissatisfaction 583 2.51 0.83 561 2.09 0.71
b
Life stress 580 2.35 1.80 554 2.12 1.50
Authoritarian discipline 577 0.00 1.53 558 0.00 1.56
Traditionalism 583 2.35 0.63 561 2.58 0.60
Child misbehavior 583 2.66 0.55 561 2.77 0.51
Note. Average per capita family income (log transformed) = 4.25 (SD = .22; n = 581); average
child age = 30.82 months (SD = 13.99; n = 589).
a
Means are for original 12 item scales. Revised scales were derived in analyses and are reported in
the section titled Results. b Number of life events experienced.

renting roles. It includes items on depression, isola-
tion, and restriction in the parenting role.2 An exam-
ple item is "I feel trapped by my responsibilities as a
parent." The Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction
subscale measures a parent's perceptions of the emo-
tional quality of his or her relationship with the child,
in light of his or her expectations about the parent-
child relationship. "When I do things for my child I
get the feeling that my efforts are not appreciated
very much," is a representative item from this scale.
The Child Difficulty subscale assesses the parent's
perceptions of the child's behavior and consistency
with expectations of appropriate behavior. Typical
items include, "There are some things my child does
that really bother me a lot," and "My child gets upset
easily over the smallest thing".
The PSI/SF is reliable (6 month test-retest reliabil-
ity = .7 to .8; Cronbach's alpha = .8). However,
although there have been numerous tests of the con-
struct validity of the original PSI (Abidin, 1983),
large sample tests of the PSI/SF's factor structure and
discriminant validity are lacking. Because such test-
ing was a goal of our study, we give this information
in the section titled Results.
Marital dissatisfaction. This construct was mea-
sured with the Spouse Relationship subscale (7 items
rated on a 5-point, Likert-type scale) of the original
PSI (Abidin, 1983). An example item is, "Having a
child has caused more problems than I expected in
my relationship with my spouse." An average score
was computed (alpha = .70 to .77) in which higher
scores corresponded to dissatisfaction with the mar-
ital relationship. Abidin (1983) reported convergence
between this scale and other measures of marital
harmony.
Emotional and instrumental support from spouses
and others. These constructs were assessed with
Marshall's Emotional and Instrumental Support
scales (1989). The 11 items for the Emotional Sup-
port scale are rated on a 5-point, Likert-type scale
(higher score = greater perceived support from oth-
ers); this scale has a high internal consistency (al-
pha = .94). An average score was calculated in
which higher scores corresponded to perceptions of
greater emotional support. Using the Instrumental
Support scale, parents reported who was responsible
for nine child care tasks (e.g., diapering, feeding,
getting ready for school) on a 4-point, Likert-type
scale. An average score (alpha = .91) was calculated
in which lower scores meant "I do it," moderate
scores meant "My spouse and I share it," and higher
scores meant "My spouse or someone else does it."
Life stress. Life stress was based on the number
of stressful life events that had occurred in the past 12
months. It was assessed using the Life Events Inven-
tory (Abidin, 1983), which is an optional scale of the
PSI. Parents noted the number of listed events that
occurred, and a weighted total score was calculated.
Events such as divorce, death of an immediate family
member, and substantial (>20%) loss in income re-
ceived higher weights than other events. Abidin did
not report any reliability or validity data for this
2
One item overlapped with an item from the Mar-
ital Dissatisfaction scale, described later. This item
was included as part of this score for the confirma-
tory factor analysis but not in the convergent-dis-
criminant validity or theoretical model tests.
 PARENTING STRESS
scale. In the current study, parent agreement was
moderate (r = .46, p < .001).
Authoritarian discipline. To measure authoritar-
ian discipline, we used the Parent Discipline Inter-
view (Scarr, Pinkerton, & Eisenberg, 1994), which
has good psychometric properties in U.S. (Pinkerton
& Scarr, 1995), Bermudian (Deater-Deckard & Scarr,
1994), and Swedish samples (Palmerus & Scarr,
1994). Parents were presented with five age-appro-
priate scenarios and were asked how they would
respond and what they would do if the behavior
continued. The vignettes in this measure are designed
to tap basic issues such as violations of safety rules
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(e.g., child runs into street) and noncompliance (e.g.,
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ignoring directions to eat dinner).
Interviews were audiotaped and scored by trained
coders (interrater reliability r = .86). The 18 disci-
pline categories were condensed into six variables,
including use of physical punishment and reasoning,
which were moderately correlated (rs = —.20 to
- .29 range). Physical punishment was defined as the
parent's deliberate infliction of physical pain (e.g.,
slapping, spanking, whipping, hitting, paddling), and
reasoning was scored if the parent gave an explana-
tion of why the child's behavior was inappropriate
and did so in a way that the child would understand.
The correlates of physical punishment and reasoning
in this sample are reported elsewhere (Pinkerton &
Scarr, 1995), but to summarize, relationships with
sociodemographic and parental attitude measures
were in the expected direction (e.g., there were neg-
ative correlations between physical punishment and
parental education and Wechsler Adult Intelligence
Scale (Wechsler, 1955) Vocabulary scores; there was
a positive correlation between physical punishment
and traditional childrearing attitudes). In addition,
these scores were moderately correlated (rs = .2 to .3
range) with brief (20-30 min) observations of moth-
ers' control strategies in a toy sorting task with their
children (Deater-Deckard & Scarr, 1994). For these
analyses, use of reasoning was reverse scored and
standardized and was summed with the standardized
physical punishment score to produce an authoritar-
ian discipline score.
Traditional childrearing attitudes. We measured
traditional childrearing attitudes with the Traditional
subscale from the Parental Modernity Scale
(Schaefer & Edgerton, 1985). This scale includes 21
items that are scored on a 5-point, Likert-type scale
(higher score = more traditional attitudes), and it has
high internal consistency (alpha = .92). Spouses re-
ported having similar childrearing attitudes (r = .43,
p < .001).
Child misbehavior. The child's emotional lability
was assessed using the Emotionality subscale of the
EAS Temperament Scale (Buss & Plomin, 1984), a
20 item measure that uses a 5-point, Likert-type
scale. This scale also includes subscales to measure
sociability, shyness, and activity, but we did not use
49
these subscales in our analysis. Typical questions
regarding the child's emotional lability focus on how
easily the child becomes upset and how difficult it is
to calm the child when he or she is upset. The internal
consistency of the Emotionality subscale was high
(coefficient alpha = .75), and parental agreement
was moderate (r = .39, p < .001).
Parents also reported child hyperactivity and the
difficulty of managing their children's behaviors us-
ing the Manageability Index (Scarr et al., 1987),
which includes 35 items rated on a 5-point, Likert-
type scale. This measure lists behaviors that are typ-
ical of hyperactive and behaviorally difficult pre-
school children; parents were asked to rate how
characteristic these items were of their child. Some
example items include, "Child acts as if run by a
motor," "Child is constantly fidgeting," and "Child
interrupts without regard to others." The Manageabil-
ity Index includes both global items and situation-
specific items (e.g., child's behavior during meals,
while watching T.V., or while at a movie). We cal-
culated an average score for each parent (alpha =
.92) in which lower scores corresponded with easier
child manageability, and higher scores indicated per-
ceptions of the child as being overly active, restless,
and difficult to manage. Parental agreement was
moderate (r = .47, p < .001).
We derived a composite child misbehavior score
by averaging the Emotionality subscale score (from
the EAS) and the Manageability Index score; both of
these measures use a 5-point ordinal scale, and the
Emotionality and Manageability scores were moder-
ately correlated (r = .43, p < .001). This averaging
created a composite score that represented the child's
emotional and hyperactive misbehavior. Parental
agreement was moderate on the composite score (r =
.47, p < .001).
Results
As shown in Table 1, the mean levels on all
three parenting stress scales were low for par-
ents. Consistent with the low socioeconomic
and life events stress in this sample, parents
reported high emotional support and low pa-
renting stress, although there was variability.
Parents considered their children's behaviors to
be manageable.
Factor Analysis and Discriminant Validity
We used confirmatory factor analysis (LIS-
REL; Joreskog & Sorbom, 1989) to test the fit
of Abidin's PSI/SF three-factor solution. Par-
ents with complete data on all 36 items of the
 50 DEATER-DECKARD AND SCARR
PSI/SF were included (N = 1178). The model
fit poorly, / ( 5 9 1 , N = 1178) = 2681.39, p <
.001; goodness of fit (GFI) index = .87; ad-
justed goodness of fit (AGFI) index = .86.
Concern about the fit led us to conduct ex-
ploratory factor analysis with internal replica-
tion. The sample was randomly split in half, and
a three-factor, oblique, maximum likelihood
factor analysis was conducted with each sub-
sample. The screen plot showed that a three-
factor solution was appropriate.
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Comparison of the subsample solutions re-
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vealed that 17 items had loadings less than .4 or
loaded on more than one factor; these items
were discarded.3 This new solution was also
tested for model fit using LISREL (N = 1178).
Fit improved, / ( 1 4 9 , N= 1178)= 779.38,
p < .001; GFI = .93, AGFI = .91. We used this
reduced model for subsequent analyses.4
We tested the assumption of invariance in
factor loadings across parent and child sex
groups and child age groups. Two criteria were
used for determining differences in model fit:
(a) a significant (p < .05) chi-square difference
test, and (b) a likelihood improvement percent-
age (Lip) that exceeded 5% (Bolger, Patterson,
Thompson, & Kupersmidt, 1995). The invari-
ance assumption was not rejected for any of the
group comparisons; none of the chi-square tests
was significant, and the Lip tests ranged from
2% to 3%. 5
To test the discriminant validity of these re-
vised subscales, we computed correlations
(mothers n = 581, fathers n = 558) with two
sets of criteria variables: a parental stress set
(marital dissatisfaction and reverse-scored
Emotional Support scale scores) and a child-
related stress set (Emotionality subscale score
and behavioral manageability).6 Correlations
between Parent Distress subscale scores and the
parent criteria (rs = .32 to .60) were higher
(p < .05) than correlations with child criteria
(rs = .26 to .28), and Child Difficulty subscale
scores were more highly correlated (p < .05)
with the child criteria (rs = .39 to .54) than with
the parent criteria (rs = .13 to .29). The Parent-
Child Dysfunctional Interaction subscale score
was similarly correlated with parent and child
criteria among fathers (rs = .21 to .30); how-
ever, for mothers, correlations with child crite-
ria were significantly (p < .05) higher (rs = .19
to .25) than those with the parent criteria (rs =
.05, .11).
Bivariate Analyses
Mothers' and fathers' (N = 561 pairs) stress
scores were similar. A negligible mean differ-
ence (one tenth of a standard deviation) was
found for mothers' (M = 1.88, SD = .65) and
fathers' (Af = 1.81, SD = .65) Parent Distress
subscale scores (t = 2.07, p < .05). Mothers'
Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction sub-
scale scores (M = 1.31, SD = .43) were lower
than fathers' (Af = 1.42, SD = .54) by about
one fifth of a standard deviation (t = -4.26,
p < .001). There was no difference (t = 0.84)
between mothers' (Af = 2.10, SD = .78) and
fathers' (Af = 2.07, SD = .71) scores on the
Child Difficulty subscale. There were also no
ethnic group or child gender differences. Cor-
relations (pairwise deletion of missing data: n =
583 to 567 for mothers and n = 561 to 553 for
fathers) between the three revised PSI/SF sub-
scale scores and other family, parent, and child
variables were calculated and are shown in
Table 2.
PSI/SF Theoretical Model
We used path analysis to test Abidin's PSI/SF
theoretical model (Abidin, 1990).7 According to
this theory, parents who are more stressed in the
parenting role, who perceive their children to be
difficult, and who have dysfunctional interac-
tions with their children exhibit poor parenting
(e.g., authoritarian discipline) that, in turn, leads
to greater behavioral difficulty (e.g., hyper-
activity and emotionality) in the child. Descrip-
tion of the predictive paths are in reference to
statistical prediction only. To control for in-
flated estimates from shared method variance,
3
A detailed description of the original and revised
factor solutions may be requested from Kirby Deater-
Deckard.
4
All subsequent analyses were also conducted us-
ing the original scales; the correlational analysis re-
sults were nearly identical. However, the intercorre-
lations between subscales in the original solution
were slightly higher and may indicate poorer dis-
criminant validity than the revised solution.
5
A detailed description of the factorial invariance
analyses may be requested from Kirby Deater-
Deckard.
6
Only those correlations that were significant at
p < .05 are described here.
7
Only those effects significant at p < .05 are dis-
cussed in the section titled Results.
 PARENTING STRESS 51

Table 2
Correlations Between Revised Parenting Stress and Family, Parent, and
Child Characteristics
PSI/SF subscales
Parent-Child
Dysfunction
Parent Distress Interaction Child Difficulty
Variable Mother Father Mother Father Mother Father
Per capita incomea -.18** -.17** -.14** -.06 -.05 -.14**
Years of education -.08* -.12** -.10* -.05 -.02 -.01
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Parent age -.07 -.06 -.05 -.06 -.01 -.02

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Child age -.09* -.06 -.01 -.04 .13** .15**

Emotional support -.42** -.32** -.05 -.26** -.13** -.13**
Instrumental support -.15** .10* -.01 .05 -.01 .01
Marital dissatisfaction .50** .60** .11** .30** .20** .29**
Life stress .14** .09* .07 -.03 .06 .06
Authoritarian discipline .09* .12** .13** .14** .02 .13**
Traditionalism .13** .11** .18** .17** .08* .07
Child misbehaviorb .31** .32** .25** .26** .56** .57**
0
Child misbehavior .14** .10* .21** .09* .27** .28**
Note. PSI/SF = Parenting Stress Index-Short Form.
a
Log transformed. b Self-report child behavior. c Spouse report child behavior.
* p< .05. **p< .01.

spouses' ratings of child misbehavior were used
(fathers' parenting stress and discipline predict-
ing mothers' ratings of child misbehavior, and
vice versa). Listwise deletion of missing data
resulted in a reduced sample of 550 fathers and
549 mothers.
The results are shown in Figure 1. The three
revised parenting stress scales were intercorre-
lated. Significant predictive paths included (a)
dysfunctional interaction to authoritarian disci-
pline to child misbehavior, and (b) child diffi-
culty to child misbehavior (R2 = .09 to .11).
The only difference between the mothers and
fathers was the significant path from dysfunc-
tional interaction to child misbehavior for
mothers.
Invariance in the regression paths and vari-
ances across child sex and age groups was
tested (using LISREL). We also tested invari-
ance for parents who were happy or unhappy in
their marital relationship (splitting half the stan-
dard deviation above the mean on marital dis-
satisfaction). In Model 1, all paths were fixed to
be invariant; in Model 2, regression paths and
variances were free to vary. The same criteria
for testing differences in model fit (chi-square
difference tests and the Lip) were used. The
invariance assumption was not rejected for the
child sex comparison. Model 1 fit the data so
well that the chi-square difference—for moth-
ers, ^ ( 1 2 , N = 549) = 10.6, ns; for fathers,
/ ( 1 2 , 7V= 550) = 11.2, ns—was not signifi-
cantly different from 0. Even if Model 2 had fit
the data perfectly, the difference could not ex-
ceed the critical value of 21.0 (forp < .05). By
contrast, the invariance assumption was rejected
for child age and marital dissatisfaction groups
for both mothers and fathers. The chi-square
differences for the child age comparisons were
large and significant: for mothers, ^ ( 2 4 , A^ =
549) = 70.43, p < .001; for fathers, ^ ( 2 4 , N =
550) = 60.9, p < .001. The Lip indexes were
similarly large (96% for mothers; 75% for fa-
thers). Similar chi-square differences and Lip
values were found for the marital relationship
comparisons: for mothers, ,^(12, A7 = 549) =
40.1, p < .001, Lip = 90%; for fathers, ^ ( 1 2 ,
N = 550) = 76.7, p < .001, Lip = 90%.
Thus, the relations between parenting stress,
discipline, and child misbehavior were moder-
ated by child age and marital dissatisfaction.
Path models for mothers (see Figure 2) and
fathers (see Figure 3) were estimated separately
for young toddlers, older toddlers, and pre-
schoolers.
For mothers, young toddlers' misbehavior
was predicted by parent-child dysfunctional in-
teraction, both directly and through authoritar-
ian discipline, explaining 7% of the variance.
For older toddlers, the only significant path to
 52 DEATER-DECKARD AND SCARR
Fathers
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This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
Mothers
Figure 1. Parenting stress for mothers (n = 549) and fathers (n = 550). p < .05 or ( ) =
nonsignificant. PD = parent distress; Disc = discipline; CD = child difficulty; Beh = child
misbehavior; DI = dysfunctional interaction.
child misbehavior (R2 = .11) was a direct path
from child difficulty. For preschoolers, the only
significant predictors of child misbehavior were
child difficulty and parent-child dysfunctional
interaction, which together explained 23% of
the variance.
For fathers, young toddlers' misbehavior
(R2 = .06) was only predicted from child diffi-
culty. For older toddlers, child difficulty pre-
dicted authoritarian discipline and child misbe-
havior (R2 = .08). Preschoolers' misbehavior
was predicted by child difficulty and authoritar-
ian discipline, which explained 16% of the
variance.
Similar comparison models were estimated
for happily married and unhappily married
mothers (Figure 4) and fathers (Figure 5). For
the satisfied mothers, child misbehavior (R2 =
.14) was predicted directly by all three parent-
ing stress scales, and discipline partially medi-
ated the prediction from dysfunctional interac-
tion. By contrast, for dissatisfied mothers, the
only predictors of child misbehavior (R2 = .07)
were parent-child dysfunctional interaction and
.91
Beh
child difficulty. For happily married fathers,
child misbehavior (R2 = .10) was predicted by
child difficulty and authoritarian discipline.
Among the dissatisfied fathers, discipline medi-
ated the prediction of child misbehavior (R2 =
.10) from parent distress.
Discussion
Most researchers who are interested in the
impact of stress on parents' relationships with
their spouses and children have had to assume
that this system operates similarly for mothers
and fathers. The primary goal of this study was
to explore this assumption by testing Abidin's
parenting stress model for both fathers and
mothers. The factorial invariance assumption
and the discriminant validity of the new PSI/SF
were also tested.
Psychometric Properties
Tests comparing the three-factor solution of the
PSI/SF (Parent Distress, Parent-Child Dysfunc-
 PARENTING STRESS 53

Young
toddler
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This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

Older
toddler prj
x.89
(08)
31 Dl 1 Disc Beh
.35/
(.03)

Pre-
school

Figure 2. Mothers' parenting stress by child age (young toddler n = 162; older toddler n = 214;
pre-school n = 173). p < .05 or ( ) = nonsignificant. PD = parent distress; Disc = discipline;
CD = child difficulty; Beh = child misbehavior; DI = dysfunctional interaction.

tional Interactions, and Child Difficulty subscales)
between parent sex, child sex, and child age
groups showed that the factorial invariance as-
sumption was met: Parenting stress was being
measured similarly across these groups. The Child
Difficulty subscale demonstrated the best dis-
criminant validity for both parents' reports. How-
ever, the results were mixed for the other two
scales; discriminant validity of the Parent Distress
subscale was poor for fathers, and only fathers'
scores on the Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interac-
tion subscale were nondifferentialry correlated
with the child and parent criteria variables. Addi-
tional replication and exploratory studies need to
be conducted using the PSI/SF to test alternative
(e.g., single- or two-factor solutions) measurement
models that may yield better discriminant validity.
Mothers and Fathers: More Similar
Than Different
Comparisons of mothers' and fathers' reports
of parenting stress (including means and corre-
 54 DEATER-DECKARD AND SCARR

Young
toddler
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This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

Older
toddler pp

Pre-
school

Figure 3. Fathers' parenting stress by child age (young toddler n = 163; older toddler n = 214;
pre-school n = 173). p < .05 or ( ) = nonsignificant. PD = parent distress; Disc = discipline;
CD = child difficulty; Beh = child misbehavior; DI = dysfunctional interaction.

lates) revealed many similarities and few differ-
ences. Although past research exploring gender
differences in parenting stress has shown mixed
results, there were few differences in mothers'
and fathers' means on the three parenting stress
subscale scores in this sample (differences were
no larger than one fifth of a standard deviation).
This finding generalizes to other indicators of
parental stress and anxiety among these families
(Deater-Deckard et al., 1994); mothers and fa-
thers also had similar anxieties about daily sep-
aration from their children.
More parenting stress was associated with
lower family income and education for par-
ents—a finding that is consistent with the liter-
ature (Pianta & Egeland, 1990)—although the
magnitude of these effects was small. There
were no mean differences in stress attributable
to ethnic group membership. In general, socio-
economic or demographic stress was not a very
meaningful contributing factor for parenting
stress among these parents, most likely because
all of these families had access to the resources
that are available to middle- and upper-middle-
 PARENTING STRESS 55

Unhappy
PD
.93

Beh
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This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

..86

Beh

Figure 4. Mothers' parenting stress by marital satisfaction (unhappy n = 112; happy n = 437).
p < .05 or ( ) = nonsignificant. PD = parent distress; Disc = discipline; CD = child difficulty;
Beh = child misbehavior; DI = dysfunctional interaction.

class families (e.g., dependable child care). One
potential shortcoming of our study is that re-
stricted range in parenting stress may be respon-
sible for attenuated correlations with these fam-
ily characteristics. It may be the case that the
relationship between parenting stress and socio-
economic status (SES) is nonlinear, whereby
larger negative correlations with parenting
stress would be found at lower levels of socio-
economic stress. It is plausible that there are
also qualitative differences between the parent-
ing stress among low-SES and middle- to high-
SES parents. These possible SES group differ-
ences may apply not only to the correlates and
means of parenting stress, but also to the factor
structure.
Child age was also a small, but reliable, cor-
relate of parenting stress, but child gender was
not. Parents of older children perceived these
children to be more behaviorally difficult, but
mothers of older children reported slightly less
parental distress. The correlation between child
age and child difficulty is not surprising: It is
possible that as children pass from high depen-
dence and low autonomy to greater indepen-
dence and autonomy as they grow older, parents
may perceive their children's behaviors as more
problematic. However, the negative relationship
between child age and parent distress is puz-
zling, given the modest (rs = .11 to .13) posi-
tive correlations between parent distress and
child difficulty.
Another shortcoming of our study is the
cross-sectional sampling of child age; concerns
about cohort effects limit interpreting these age
effects. It is noteworthy that one of the few
longitudinal studies of parenting stress (Dyson,
1993) over the same child age period as our
study (infancy through preschool) showed no
changes in parenting stress levels over time and
 56 DEATER-DECKARD AND SCARR

Unhappy
PD
.90
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This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

Figure 5. Fathers' parenting stress by marital satisfaction (unhappy n = 105; happy n = 445).
p < .05 or ( ) = nonsignificant. PD = parent distress; Disc = discipline; CD = child difficulty;
Beh = child misbehavior; DI = dysfunctional interaction.

showed few changes in parents' relative rank
(stability correlations were in the .70' s).
Relative to the time mothers spend in child
care tasks, fathers in families where both par-
ents are working outside the home spend more
time in child caregiving compared to fathers
whose wives are full-time homemakers (Lamb,
1987). By the same token, most contemporary
fathers are spending more time with their chil-
dren than their own fathers did. In our study,
both mothers and fathers reported slightly lower
parent distress when the father shared or did
most of the child care in the home. It seems that,
for these very busy families, a more egalitarian
division of child care labor had modest benefits
for both mothers and fathers; this finding is
consistent with past research (Barnett & Ba-
ruch, 1987). It was proposed in another recent
study of this sample (Deater-Deckard et al.,
1994) that fathers in dual-earner families may
not share more of the child care in the home
because the costs in terms of added stress out-
weigh the benefits. This does not appear to be
the case in our study. Additional research ex-
ploring the confluence of parents' sex role atti-
tudes, instrumental support, and related stress
should be conducted. It is possible that having
an egalitarian division of labor is related to
happier outcomes for parents to the degree that
it is consistent with parents' attitudes about who
should be doing what.
The largest correlate of parenting stress was
emotional support from others, particularly
from spouses. Parents who were unhappy in
their marriages and perceived less support from
others were more distressed. Although some
researchers have emphasized the potentially dif-
ferential impact of support on parenting stress
for men and women (Gable et al., 1992; Krauss,
1993), the correlations of emotional support and
 PARENTING STRESS
marital satisfaction with parenting stress were
very similar for mothers and fathers.
The PSI/SF Theoretical Model
There were small, but statistically reliable,
relationships between parenting stress (particu-
larly parent-child dysfunctional interaction),
authoritarian discipline, and child misbehavior
for the entire sample of mothers and fathers (as
shown in Figure 1). Parents who were more
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stressed reported using more authoritarian,
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power assertive discipline strategies, which
were related to child misbehavior. However,
these effects were small: Regression coeffi-
cients of the discipline-mediated paths did not
exceed .21, although inclusion of the direct
paths from parenting stress to child misbehavior
resulted in larger explained variance estimates.
In fact, the direct paths from child difficulty and
dysfunctional interactions were similar or larger
in magnitude than the discipline-mediated paths
for the total sample of fathers (as shown in
Figure 1). It is possible that these small effects
would be larger in a sample where there was
more variability in parenting stress and levels of
stress were high. In this sample, the average
levels of parenting stress were low; thus, parent-
ing stress may not have had a marked associa-
tion with parental discipline and child behavior.
However, it should not be too surprising that
small effects predominate in a sample of normal
families. In a recent meta-analysis of the co-
variation of parental caregiving behavior (in-
cluding discipline) and child externalizing-type
behaviors (similar to the child misbehavior
measure used in this study) among nonclinical
samples, Rothbaum and Weisz (1994) reported
that the average correlation between parenting
and child behavior was in the .1 to .2 range (no
more than 5% of the variance in child misbe-
haviors). The 6% to 23% explained variance,
based on Abidin's model, represents a substan-
tial improvement in predictive power.
Sex or Society? Stress, Gender, and
Marital Satisfaction
The similarities in parenting stress for moth-
ers and fathers outweighed the differences in
this study. The levels and correlates of parent-
ing stress were similar for both parents in these
dual-earner families, and the statistical predic-
57
tion of parental behavior and child behavior
from stress was nearly identical. These similar-
ities are evidence for the social role hypothesis
(Barnett & Baruch, 1987). There was also evi-
dence for the sex role hypothesis, however:
Specifically, the moderating effect of marital
satisfaction was different for men and women as
evidenced by stronger associations among
stress and discipline for fathers and weaker as-
sociations for mothers. These analyses are by no
means conclusive, given the correlational nature
of the data and our reliance on self-report. Fur-
thermore, there was little variability in role oc-
cupation among these parents: All worked full-
time, and fathers shared child-care tasks in the
majority of families. More comprehensive stud-
ies, incorporating multiple indicators of stress
(e.g., biological measures, spouse or peer rat-
ings) that investigate changes over time and
family circumstances, are needed.
Some researchers have suggested that marital
satisfaction moderates the impact of parenting
stress on parental behavior differentially for
men and women (Belsky et al., 1989; Gable et
al., 1992; Parke & Tinsley, 1987). Although not
conclusive, our findings support this differential
hypothesis. Marital dissatisfaction was not only
more strongly associated with parenting stress
among fathers (which is consistent with past
research; see Frank et al., 1991), but it also had
a greater impact on the relationships between
discipline and child behavior. For the unhappy
mothers, there were no mediating effects of
parental discipline, but for unhappy fathers, the
links from parent distress to child behavior were
more strongly mediated through punitive disci-
pline. These mediated paths were larger in mag-
nitude than any of the direct paths from parent-
ing stress to child misbehavior. Thus, the
PSI/SF theoretical model was best supported
among fathers with high marital dissatisfaction.
Concluding Remarks: Parenting
Is Stressful
The distinction between parenting stress that
results from serious child behavioral, cognitive,
or physical impairment and parenting stress that
results from the normal day-to-day transactions
between parents and children may be the best
explanation for the mixed findings on parent sex
differences in parenting stress in the existing
literature. Those studies that have reported
 58 DEATER-DECKARD AND SCARR
higher levels of parenting stress for mothers
have been based on clinical samples of children
with chronic illnesses or behavioral adjustment
problems (Hauenstein, 1990). In contrast, it is
possible that parenting stress among families
with adequate resources is qualitatively differ-
ent from parenting stress among families coping
with serious child problems, resulting in few
parent sex differences and less serious conse-
quences for family functioning. Although the
PSI/SF measure has been used primarily by
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clinical researchers and practitioners, the instru-
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
ment and theory can, and should, be applied to
research on a broad array of families. Only then
can researchers rigorously test whether parent-
ing stress operates similarly or differently for
various identifiable groups of parents.
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Received November 1, 1994
Revision received June 7, 1995
Accepted June 8, 1995 •