Arab Educational Information Network

The Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) which developed by (Parker, Tupling, and Brown, 1979) is widely used by researchers and professionals to assess parent-adolescent relationships. The purpose of this study was to validate an Arabic version of the PBI for Saudi adolescents. Participants from intermediate and secondary schools were 156 boys and 145 girls from schools in Riyadh. The mean age for participants was 15.47 years old and the age range was 13- 18 years. Methods used were back translation, assessment of semantic equivalence, face validity, analysis of internal consistency of sub-scales, analysis of the factor structure. Correlations were calculated between PBI and measures of self-esteem, depression and bullying to provide an estimate of concurrent validity. Results found good internal consistency for the Mother Care and Father Care subscales, but poor internal consistency for the Mother Overprotection and Father Overprotection subscales. Factor analysis resulted in 3 factors (care, encouragement of behavioural freedom and denial of psychological autonomy). Significant correlations with self-esteem, depression, bullying and victimisation of bullying were found. Conclusions were that the Care subscale is suitable for use with Arab adolescents but cultural factors impacted the suitability of the Overprotection subscale. (Published Abstract)