BACKGROUND The Parental Bonding Instrument, present self-report version, (PBI-PCh) includes three scales, Warmth, Protectiveness and Authoritarianism, which describe three dimensions of current parenting. The purposes of this study were to (1) evaluate the true and observed stability of these parenting dimensions related to older children, (2) explore the distribution of individual-level change across nine months and (3) test potential parental predictors of parenting instability. METHODS Questionnaires were distributed to school-based samples of community parents of both genders (n = 150) twice, nine months apart. These questionnaires measured parenting, parental personality and emotional symptoms. RESULTS Based on 1) stability correlations, 2) true stability estimates from structural equation modeling (SEM) and 3) distribution of individual-level change, Warmth appeared rather stable, although not as stable as personality traits. Protectiveness was moderately stable, whereas Authoritarianism was the least stable parenting dimension among community parents. The differences in stability between the three dimensions were consistent in both estimated true stability and observed stability. Most of the instability in Warmth originated from a minority of parents with personality, childhood care characteristics and lower current parenting warmth. For the Protectiveness dimension, instability was associated with higher Protectiveness scores. CONCLUSIONS True instability with all three self-reported parenting dimensions can occur across nine months in a community sample related to older children (7-15), but it may occur with varying degrees among dimensions and subpopulations. The highest stability was found for the Warmth parenting dimension, but a subgroup of "unstably cold" parents could be identified. Stability needs to be taken into account when interpreting longitudinal research on parenting and when planning and evaluating parenting interventions in research and clinical practice.

中文翻译：

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三个养育维度的群体和个体稳定性。

背景 Parental Bonding Instrument，目前的自我报告版本，(PBI-PCh) 包括三个量表，即温暖、保护性和威权主义，它们描述了当前育儿的三个维度。本研究的目的是 (1) 评估与年龄较大儿童相关的这些养育维度的真实和观察到的稳定性，(2) 探索九个月内个体水平变化的分布，以及 (3) 测试养育不稳定的潜在父母预测因素. 方法 将问卷分发给两性（n = 150）社区家长的学校样本两次，间隔九个月。这些问卷测量了育儿方式、父母性格和情绪症状。结果基于 1) 稳定性相关性，2) 结构方程模型 (SEM) 的真实稳定性估计和 3) 个体水平变化的分布，温暖似乎相当稳定，虽然不如人格特质稳定。保护性适度稳定，而威权主义是社区父母中最不稳定的养育维度。三个维度之间的稳定性差异在估计的真实稳定性和观察到的稳定性方面是一致的。温暖的不稳定性大部分源于少数具有个性、儿童照顾特征和当前育儿温暖度较低的父母。对于保护性维度，不稳定性与较高的保护性得分相关。结论 在与年龄较大的儿童 (7-15) 相关的社区样本中，所有三个自我报告的养育维度的真正不稳定性可能会在九个月内发生，但在维度和亚群之间可能会出现不同程度的不稳定。温暖养育维度的稳定性最高，但可以确定“不稳定冷”父母的子组。在解释关于养育的纵向研究以及在研究和临床实践中规划和评估养育干预时，需要考虑稳定性。