Supervision Questionnaire – Primary Caregiver

Adapted from the revised version of the Supervision/Involvement Scale of the Pittsburgh Youth Study (Loeber, Farrington, Stouthamer-Loeber & van Kammen, 1998), which is related to family factors associated with delinquency (Loeber & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1986) and is based on the Moos' Family Environment Scale (Moos & Moos, 1975) and the Skinner, Steinhauer, & Santa-Barbara's (1983) Family Assessment Measure. The Pittsburgh Youth Study, The Department of Psychiatry of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.

Abstract: The Supervision Scale - Primary Caregiver Grade 4+ version is a 20-item measure developed for this project to assess facets of parenting supervision and involvement. The questions in this revised questionnaire assess the primary caregiver's knowledge of the youth's whereabouts, the amount of discussion and planning regarding communication of the child's whereabouts, the amount of time that the youth is unsupervised and the parent's knowledge of the youth's friends. Seven items in this revised questionnaire were not used in the scaling. Six items were not considered because the response format required either the specific indication of the time of day the child is expected home on school or weekend nights (items 4 and 6, respectively) or the responses were coded as categorical (items 14, 15, 16 and 20). One item (5) was eliminated because of a high level (58.8%) of missing data. The responses to the remaining 13 items used for scaling are coded on item-specific 5-point scales where 1 represents 'Almost Never' and 5 represents 'Almost Always'. Two of these items (8 and 13) failed to demonstrate any statistically significant relation to the other 11 items and are not considered to be representative of any specific dimension or construct. However, these two items were retained and suggested as important individual indicators of parental supervision concerning specific behavior of the child. The scaling of the 13 items of this questionnaire was based on previously derived dimensions or constructs on the original measures (Loeber et al, 1998). A single confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), utilizing a least-squares estimation procedure was used to assess statistical support for the dimension of "Supervision / Involvement". The constructs of "Discussing Daily Activities", "Curfew Time" and "Influence of Friends" consisted of only two items and reliability estimates are based on the inter-item correlations. The "Supervision / Involvement" scale is a measure of parental monitoring and can be used to assess the level of parental knowledge of the child's activities and companions. The next two scales also assess aspects of parental monitoring. The "Discussing Daily Activities" scale can be used to evaluate the frequency of parent-child communication about the child's activities and "Curfew Time" can be used to assess the extent to which the primary caregiver sets regulations on the timing of these activities for the child. The "Influence of Friends" scale is derived from parental perceptions of how positive an influence the child's friends have on him/her. This scale can be combined with other measures of peer deviancy and negative influences. Additionally, the scale and item responses presented here can be used to make a direct comparison between the responses by the child and the primary caregiver.

Who Completed this Measure?: Parent

Cohort 1 - Administrative History

  • Year 05 | grade 4 | age 10
  • Year 06 | grade 5 | age 11
  • Year 08 | grade 7 | age 13
  • Year 09 | grade 8 | age 14
  • Year 10 | grade 9 | age 15
  • Year 11 | grade 10 | age 16
  • Year 12 | grade 11 | age 17

Cohort 2 - Administrative History

  • Year 05 | grade 4 | age 10
  • Year 06 | grade 5 | age 11
  • Year 08 | grade 7 | age 13
  • Year 09 | grade 8 | age 14
  • Year 10 | grade 9 | age 15
  • Year 11 | grade 10 | age 16
  • Year 12 | grade 11 | age 17

Cohort 3 - Administrative History

  • Year 05 | grade 4 | age 10
  • Year 06 | grade 5 | age 11
  • Year 08 | grade 7 | age 13
  • Year 09 | grade 8 | age 14
  • Year 10 | grade 9 | age 15
  • Year 11 | grade 10 | age 16
  • Year 12 | grade 11 | age 17

Technical Reports:

Raw Dataset Name: PyV

Scored Dataset Name: SPGySPc

Keywords:
Authority, Parent-Child Communication, Parental Involvement, Peer Relationships, Supervision

Is this Measure Available for Public Use?: Yes

Obtain Measure:
Download the measure here

SAS Code for Scale Creation:
Download the code here

Measure Items and Scales:

site Site
tcid Study ID Number
P11V14a Description of Supervision
P11V14b Description of being Unsupervised
P11V14c Description of Dont Know if Supervised
P11V14d Description of Other Supervision
P11V15a Description of Evening Supervision
P11V15b Description of being Unsupervised in the Evening
P11V15c Description of Dont Know if Supervised in the Evening
P11V15d Description of Other Supervision in the Evening
P11V16a Description of Weekend Supervision
P11V16b Description of being Unsupervised on the Weekend
P11V16c Description of Dont Know if Supervised on the Weekend
P11V16d Description of Other Supervision on the Weekend
cohort Cohort
sitecode Actual Code Number on Form
intid Interviewer ID Number
respond Respondent
P11V4b a.m. or p.m.
P11V6b a.m. or p.m.
P11V1 Discussed Child"s Daily Plans
P11V2 Discussed Child"s Activities
P11V3 Curfew on School Nights
P11V5 Have Weekend Curfew
P11V7 Know of Curfew Violation
P11V8 Can Leave Home if Parent Gone
P11V9 Child Notifies of Destination
P11V10 Know Child"s Companions Away from Home
P11V11 Child Knows How to Reach Parent
P11V12 Know When Child Will Arrive Home
P11V13 Important to Know What Child is Doing
P11V14 After School Supervision
P11V15 Evening Supervision
P11V16 Weekend Supervision
P11V17 Child"s Friends are Good Influence
P11V18 Child"s Friends are Bad Influence
P11V19 Know Child"s Activities at Home
P11V20 Know How Many of Childs Friends
P11V4a Time of School Curfew
P11V6a Time of Weekend Curfew
P11v18r bad influence reversed
SPG11snc School Night Curfew SPG Yr11
SPG11wec Weekend Night Curfew SPG Yr11
SPG11SUP Supervision/Involvement SPG Yr11
SPG11DAY Discussing Daily Activities SPG Yr11
SPG11CFW Curfew Time SPG Yr11
SPG11INF Influence of Friends SPG Yr11