Behavioral Affect Rating Scale (BARS)

Abstract

The Behavioral Affect Rating Scale (BARS) is a specialized psychological scale designed to assess the frequency and quality of specific affective and behavioral interactions within family relationships, primarily focusing on parent-child dyads. Developed by R. D. Conger in 1989 for the Iowa Youth & Family Project, the BARS measures two core dimensions: Parental Warmth/Affection and Parental Hostility/Conflict.

The instrument is available in several formats, including 12-item and 22-item versions, utilizing varying Likert scale response formats. It is unique in its ability to gather data from multiple reporters (child, mother, and father) concerning the same relationship, providing a comprehensive, multi-perspective view of family dynamics and parenting practices. High internal consistency coefficients confirm the scale’s reliability in measuring these crucial behavioral constructs.

Keywords

Affective behavior, Parenting, Family relationships, Hostility, Warmth, Child assessment, Interpersonal conflict, Conger, Iowa Youth & Family Project, Psychometrics.

Authors

Rand D. Conger, Z. E. Taylor, D. Larsen-Rife, K. F. Widaman.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the BARS is to provide a standardized, quantitative measure of the affective climate experienced by youth within their immediate family environment. It focuses specifically on observable behaviors rather than abstract feelings, allowing researchers and clinicians to identify specific patterns of interaction that contribute to overall relationship quality.

By assessing the frequency of both positive acts (e.g., showing affection, offering help) and negative acts (e.g., shouting, criticizing, hitting), the BARS serves as a critical tool in longitudinal studies aimed at understanding how parental behavior mediates adolescent development, resilience, and risk for adverse outcomes. The different versions and reporter formats allow for flexibility in research design, enabling detailed examination of bidirectional effects within the family.

Construct

The BARS is designed to capture two distinct, yet often co-occurring, latent constructs that define the quality of the parent-child relationship: Parental Warmth and Affection and Parental Hostility and Aggression. Items measuring warmth assess supportive, loving, and appreciative behaviors, reflecting emotional availability and positive engagement.

In contrast, items measuring hostility capture coercive behaviors, verbal abuse, physical aggression, ignoring, and excessive criticism. These items reflect the level of conflict and negative emotional expression present in the relationship. The scale’s construction allows for the independent scoring of these two dimensions, recognizing that high levels of warmth and hostility may exist concurrently in complex family settings.

Validity

The scale’s validity is supported by its extensive use in prominent academic research focused on family dynamics and youth development. Its clear factor structure, which consistently separates items into the Warmth and Hostility subscales, contributes to strong construct validity. This structural integrity ensures that the scale accurately captures the intended psychological constructs.

Furthermore, the BARS has demonstrated excellent ecological and predictive validity, often showing significant correlations between reported parental behaviors and external measures, such as adolescent adjustment outcomes, substance use, and mental health status, across various demographic groups, including its application in studies of Mexican-origin families.

Reliability

The Behavioral Affect Rating Scale exhibits strong internal consistency, confirming its reliability as a measurement instrument. Internal consistency is typically measured using Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients, which, as reported in the source material, are consistently high across different reporters and targets:

• Mother report of father hostility: 0.88
• Mother report of father warmth: 0.94
• Father report of mother hostility: 0.81
• Father report of mother warmth: 0.91
• Child report of mother warmth: 0.82
• Child report of father warmth: 0.87

These coefficients, which largely fall within the “excellent” range (above 0.80), underscore the precision and stability of the BARS in capturing the affective tone of familial interactions.

Factor Analysis

The underlying factor structure of the BARS consistently points to a bifactorial model, clearly delineating Warmth/Affection behaviors from Hostility/Conflict behaviors. Factor analysis, whether exploratory or confirmatory, confirms that the behavioral items load highly onto their respective, theoretically driven factors.

This distinct separation is crucial, as it allows researchers to treat positive and negative behaviors as separate dimensions rather than opposite ends of a single continuum. The robust internal consistency of the subscales serves as indirect evidence that the factor structure is sound and replicable across different samples.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report/Other-report Behavioral Assessment Scale

Format: The BARS includes multiple versions: a 12-item version and a 22-item version (Conger, 1989), as well as a modified Taylor (2002) version. Response options vary significantly:

• Conger (1989) 22-item version uses a 7-point scale (1 = Always to 7 = Never).
• Conger (1989) 12-item version uses a 3-point scale (1 = Never to 3 = Most of the time).
• Taylor (2002) version uses a 4-point scale with only endpoints labeled (1 = Almost never or never to 4 = Almost always or always).

Language Available: English (Primary language); used in studies requiring adaptations for Spanish-speaking populations.

Population Group: Family members (Parents and Youth).

Age Group: Youth (Adolescents) and Adults.

Population Details: Originally developed for the Iowa Youth & Family Project; successfully utilized in studies across various cultural backgrounds, including Mexican-origin families.

Test Methodology: Respondents rate how often specific interpersonal behaviors occurred during a recent defined period (e.g., the past 12 months) when interacting with a targeted family member (e.g., mother or father).

Keywords

Psychometric assessment, Affective interaction, Parental behavior, Iowa Youth & Family Project, Conger, Hostility, Warmth, Family conflict, Child development.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source.

Correspondence Address: The primary author, R. D. Conger, was affiliated with Iowa State University during the scale’s initial development.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Behavioral Affect Rating Scale (BARS) was initially published in 1989. Specific fee information for research use is not provided in the source documentation. However, the instrument has been made publicly available for academic and research purposes through specialized compendiums. The scale items can be found on pages 18-21 of Latino Families and Youth: A Compendium of Assessment Tools.

The original PDF can be downloaded here: http://www.codajic.org/sites/www.codajic.org/files/Binder-orpinas%20meassurement.pdf

Reference’s

Conger, R. D. (1989). Behavioral Affect Rating Scale (BARS). Developed from diverse sources for the Iowa Youth & Family Project. Ames, IA: Iowa State University.

Taylor, Z. E., Larsen-Rife, D., Conger, R. D., & Widaman, K. F. (2012). Familism, interparental conflict, and parenting in Mexican-origin families: A cultural–contextual framework. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74(2), 312-327 3.

The instrument is also available in Latino Families and Youth: A Compendium of Assessment Tools, online at: http://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=23171&Itemid=

Items of the Behavioral Affect Rating Scale (BARS)

12-item version:

How often does your [dad/mom]…

1. Get mad (angry) at you?
2. Let you know he/she really care about you?
3. Criticize you or your ideas?
4. Shout or yell at you because he/she was mad at you?
5. Act lovingly and affectionate toward you?
6. Let you know that he/she appreciate you‚ your ideas or the things you does?
7. Help you do something that was important to you?
8. Argue with you whenever you disagreed about something?
9. Threaten you‚ or tell you that you’re going to get in trouble if you do something wrong?
10. Hit‚ push‚ grab or shove you?
11. Tell you that he/she loves you?
12. Ignore you when you tried to talk to him/her?

22-item version:

During the past 12 months when you and specific person have spent time talking or doing things together‚ how often did she/he…

1. Get angry at you?
2. Ask you for your opinion about an important matter?
3. Listen carefully to your point of view?
4. Let you know she/he really cares about you?
5. Criticize you or your ideas?
6. Shout or yell at you because she/he was mad at you?
7. Act loving and affectionate toward you?
8. Ignore you when you tried to talk to him/her?
9. Give you a lecture about how you should behave?
10. Let you know that she/he appreciates you‚ your ideas or the things you do?
11. Help you do something that was important to you?
12. Boss you around a lot?
13. Have a good laugh with you about something that was funny?
14. Hit‚ push‚ grab or shove you?
15. Not listen to you but do all of the talking himself/herself?
16. Argue with you whenever you disagreed about something?
17. Act supportive and understanding toward you?
18. Insult or swear at you?
19. Tell you she/he is right and you are wrong about things?
20. Call you bad names?
21. Threaten to hurt you by hitting you with his/her fist‚ an object‚ or something else?
22. Tell you she/he loves you?