{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,27]],"date-time":"2026-02-27T08:21:11Z","timestamp":1772180471240,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,27]],"date-time":"2026-02-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1772150400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>Parenting behavior is a central determinant of childhood development and is thus deserving of more scientific attention. In the present article, we constructed an ultra-short scale for the assessment of parenting styles, the Parenting Scale 4 (PS-4). To this end, we analyzed large samples of parent\u2013child dyads\u2014one representative of the German general population (Sample 1), the other representative for the German federal state Lower Saxony (Sample 2). We applied an algorithm-based scale-shortening technique in Sample 1 and confirmed the resulting model in Sample 2, finding excellent model fit and\u2014given the extreme brevity\u2014acceptable reliability. Furthermore, we show that the model is invariant across parent and child genders. Correlations with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire remain virtually unchanged compared to a longer version of the Parenting Scale, which is evidence for the PS-4\u2019s validity. Overall, the PS-4 can be recommended for the assessment of parenting behavior, particularly in large-scale surveys with time constraints.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1595258","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,27]],"date-time":"2026-02-27T06:51:18Z","timestamp":1772175078000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Construction and validation of the ultra-short version of the Parenting Scale (PS-4)"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Bjarne","family":"Schmalbach","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University","place":["Mainz, Germany"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dirk","family":"Baier","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Delinquency and Crime Prevention, Zurich University of Applied Sciences","place":["Zurich, Switzerland"]},{"name":"Faculty of Law, University of Zurich","place":["Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yvonne","family":"Krieg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony","place":["Hannover, Germany"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Elmar","family":"Br\u00e4hler","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinic and Polyclinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Rostock University Medical Center","place":["Rostock, Germany"]},{"name":"Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz","place":["Mainz, Germany"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"S\u00f6ren","family":"Kliem","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ernst-Abbe-Hochschule Jena \u2013 University of Applied Sciences","place":["Jena, Germany"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2680","DOI":"10.1007\/s10826-014-0070-x","article-title":"Perceptions of parenting styles and their associations with mental health and life satisfaction among urban Indonesian adolescents","volume":"24","author":"Abubakar","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. 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