TOPSE for babies in Norwegian: examining the reliability of a tool to measure parenting self-efficacy

Background:

Parents’ confidence in their parenting abilities, or parenting self-efficacy (PSE), is an important factor for parenting practices. The Tool to measure Parenting Self-Efficacy (TOPSE) is a questionnaire created to evaluate parenting programmes by measuring PSE. Originally, it was designed for parents with children between the ages of 0–6 years. A modified version specifically for parents of infants aged 0-6 months (TOPSE for babies) is currently being piloted. In this study, we translated TOPSE for babies and investigated the reliability of the Norwegian version.

Aim:

To investigate the reliability of the Norwegian version of TOPSE for babies.

Methods:

The study included 123 parents of children aged 0–18 months who completed a digital version of the TOPSE questionnaire. Professional translators performed the translation from English to Norwegian and a back translation in collaboration with the author group. Mean and standard deviation were calculated for each of the questionnaire’s six domains, and a reliability analysis was conducted using a Bayesian framework for the total sample (parents of children aged 0–18 months) and specifically for the parents of the youngest group of children (0–6 months).

Findings:

The Norwegian version of TOPSE for babies is a reliable tool for measuring parenting self-efficacy. However, some variations exist across the children’s age groups and domains. The overall Bayesian alpha coefficient for the suggested domains ranged from 0.54 to 0.83 for the entire sample and from 0.63 to 0.86 for parents with children aged 0–6 months. For two of the domains, one item in each proved to largely determine the low alpha coefficients, and removing them improved the reliability, especially for parents with children aged 0–6 months.