Parental Discipline in Emerging Adulthood: The Creation and Validation of the Domains of Young Adult Discipline Scale (DYADS)

Abstract

Emerging evidence suggests that parents engage in discipline practices during emerging adulthood, and the use of physical discipline is associated with negative mental health outcomes for emerging adults. However, it appears that no measure of discipline strategies used in emerging adulthood exists. The current study developed the Domains of Young Adult Discipline Scale (DYADS), a measure of parental discipline during emerging adulthood. After item construction, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on a random half of the data (N = 288), followed by a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the second random half of the data (N = 304). Results of the CFA supported the factor structure of the EFA (i.e., three-factor structure) and revealed the best fitting model contained 24 items. The DYADS correlated with measures of parenting style and discipline as well as a measure of emerging adult mental health. Implications for future research are discussed.

Keywords

emerging adults parenting discipline scale development

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