Parent/Child Social Competencies—Conflict Behavior Questionnaire

Abstract

The Parent/Child Social Competencies—Conflict Behavior Questionnaire (P/CSC-CBQ) is a 20-item measure developed to assess the quality of interaction and conflict resolution behaviors exhibited by a child, typically an adolescent, toward their parent. This instrument captures both positive indicators of social competence and negative indicators of conflictual behaviors within the family context. The scale uses a simple dichotomous (True/False) response format and requires specific recoding of positive items to yield a final, unified score that reflects the overall level of parent-child conflict. A higher score indicates a greater magnitude of conflictual behaviors.

Keywords

Parent-Child Conflict, Social Competencies, Adolescence, Emotion Regulation, Conflict Behavior Questionnaire, Family Dynamics, Interpersonal Conflict.

Authors

Eberly, M. B., Montemayor, R., Flannery, D. J.

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Purpose

The primary purpose of the Parent/Child Social Competencies—Conflict Behavior Questionnaire (P/CSC-CBQ) is to quantify the degree of conflict, ease of interaction, and the presence of socially competent behaviors exhibited by an adolescent toward their parent. It is designed to serve as a screening and research tool for assessing the quality of the parent-child relationship, focusing specifically on the adolescent’s ability to navigate disagreements and respond appropriately to parental feedback and demands.

The scale is particularly valuable in research contexts studying family systems, juvenile behavior, and the development of emotion regulation skills. By providing a quantifiable measure of conflict behaviors, the P/CSC-CBQ allows for detailed analysis linking specific family interaction patterns to developmental and behavioral outcomes in youth. The measure effectively differentiates between cooperative and antagonistic parent-child dyads.

Construct

The P/CSC-CBQ primarily measures the psychological construct of Social Competence as it manifests in dyadic relationships, juxtaposed against Conflictual Behaviors. Social competence, in this setting, includes the child’s demonstrated capacity for constructive communication, receptivity to criticism, willingness to compromise during arguments, and maintaining overall positive interaction patterns with the parent.

The instrument is carefully constructed to capture a spectrum of behaviors, encompassing items indicative of positive social rapport (e.g., being easy to get along with, listening) and items indicative of highly negative or conflictual interactions (e.g., expressing frequent anger, acting impatient, arguing about rules). The emphasis on listening and considering parental feelings suggests an underlying focus on both mutual respect and the adolescent’s developing capacity for emotion regulation within the family unit.

Validity

Specific psychometric validation details, such as detailed construct validity or criterion validity coefficients, are not explicitly provided in the source summary. However, the P/CSC-CBQ was developed within a rigorous academic framework focused on family context and adolescent helpfulness, suggesting initial face validity for assessing relevant interaction patterns.

Its inclusion in the CDC compendium, Measuring Violence-Related Attitudes, Behaviors, and Influences Among Youths: A Compendium of Assessment Tools, suggests that the instrument is recognized for its utility in assessing interpersonal conflict that is relevant to broader behavioral health and prevention studies. Researchers should consult the original 1993 publication for comprehensive data regarding the instrument’s validation and empirical support, particularly concerning how it correlates with other established measures of social competence and family conflict.</

Reliability

Detailed reliability statistics, such as measures of internal consistency (e.g., Cronbach’s Alpha) or stability (test-retest reliability), are absent from the source material. For a psychological scale designed to measure dynamic interpersonal conflict, ensuring high reliability is critical for accurate interpretation of results across different administrations and populations.

Given that the instrument utilizes a dichotomous (True/False) response format, researchers should exercise caution and ideally calculate reliability coefficients specific to their study population. The overall scoring method, which aggregates positive and negative items into a single conflict score, requires consistent internal structure across the item set to maintain measurement integrity.

Factor Analysis

The scoring methodology outlined in the source material indicates that the 20 items are summed after recoding to produce a single, overall score reflecting conflictual behaviors (range 0–14). This approach suggests that the scale is typically treated as a unidimensional measure of parent-child conflict severity or as a composite index of deficits in social competence.

Although the items are conceptually split into “positive” and “negative” statements, the ultimate scoring procedure collapses these into one dimension of conflict magnitude. Comprehensive results from exploratory or confirmatory factor analysis, which would confirm whether the P/CSC-CBQ structure truly aligns with a single factor or potentially measures distinct sub-dimensions of social interaction (e.g., compliance vs. emotional expression), are not available in this summary and must be referenced in the original research.

Instrument

Test Type: Parent-Report Questionnaire (assesses the child’s behaviors as perceived by the parent).

Format: 20 items requiring a dichotomous response (1 = True or 2 = False).

Language Available: English (as published).

Population Group: Parents reporting on the behavior of their children.

Age Group: Adolescents (implied by the original research context, Journal of Early Adolescence).

Population Details: Utilized primarily in research settings focused on family dynamics, conflict resolution, and youth behavioral adjustment.

Test Methodology: Items are rated True or False. To obtain the overall measure of conflictual behaviors, six “positive” items (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 9) are recoded: “False” responses are assigned a value of 1, and “True” responses are assigned a value of 0. The remaining 14 items are scored directly. All 20 items are then summed to yield a total conflict score, with a possible range of 0 to 14. A score greater than zero signifies the presence of conflictual behaviors, with higher scores indicating greater conflict.

Keywords

Parent-Child Relationship, Conflict Resolution, Family Communication, Behavioral Assessment, Youth Development, Recoding, Dichotomous Scale.

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Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source material.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source material.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Parent/Child Social Competencies—Conflict Behavior Questionnaire was developed and published in 1993. Information regarding current usage fees, copyright holder, or specific permissions required for commercial or clinical use is not detailed in the source material. Researchers should consult the original journal publication or contact the authors for licensing requirements prior to use.

Reference’s

Eberly MB, Montemayor R, Flannery DJ. Variation in adolescent helpfulness toward parents in a family context. Journal of Early Adolescence 1993;13(3):228-244.

The instrument is also contained within the publication Measuring Violence-Related Attitudes, Behaviors, and Influences Among Youths: A Compendium of Assessment Tools, pages 248-249. The original PDF can be downloaded here: http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/YV_Compendium.pdf

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Items of the Parent/Child Social Competencies—Conflict Behavior Questionnaire

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

1. My child is easy to get along with.
2. My child is well behaved in our discussions.
3. My child is receptive to criticism.
4. For the most part‚ my child likes to talk to me.
5. We almost never seem to agree.
6. My child usually listens to what I tell him or her.
7. At least three times a week‚ we get angry at each other.
8. My child says that I have no consideration of his or her feelings.
9. My child and I compromise during arguments.
10. My child often doesn’t do what I ask.
11. The talks we have are frustrating.
12. My child often seems angry at me.
13. My child acts impatient when I talk.
14. In general‚ I don’t think we get along very well.
15. My child almost never understands my side of an argument.
16. My child and I have big arguments about little things.
17. My child is defensive when I talk to him or her.
18. My child thinks my opinions don’t count.
19. We argue a lot about rules.
20. My child tells me he or she thinks I am unfair.