Development and Validation of a Revised Version of the Berkeley Parenting Self-efficacy Scale for the fathers and mothers in South Korea

Parenting self-efficacy (PSE) is defined as parents’ judgments about their ability to execute important parenting tasks in an appropriate manner. Studies across different countries demonstrated that when parents perceive themselves as more efficacious, they are likely to engage in positive parenting behaviors that in turn, promote children’s optimal development. Recently, a revised version of the Berkeley Parenting Self-efficacy (BPSE-R) was developed as a reliable and valid measure of PSE among parents of young children in Japan and the US. Nevertheless, few scholars have extended research to mothers in other East Asian countries as well as fathers. To address this gap, we intended to see the validity and reliability of this newly developed BPSE-R scale for the fathers and mothers in South Korea. Moreover, we also aimed to report any significant differences between the fathers and mothers in South Korea with respect to 1) profiles of perceived competence on the items of the BPSE-R, and 2) relationship between PSE and various antecedents that were believed to have a strong correlation with PSE, including stress and social support. Confirmatory Factor Analysis conducted with data provided by 200 Korean fathers and 259 Korean mothers in lower elementary grade indicated strong construct, metric, and scalar equivalence. The revised measure was significantly associated in both gender samples with concurrent measures of parent well-being as well as parenting behavior. Findings and implications underscore the importance of looking at the values and practices specific to various cultural models of parenting for the father and mother group separately.