SER-PD - Polish adaptation of the my emotions scale for the assessment of parents' emotional reactions to child's crying

Abstract

Background: The Polish adaptation of the My Emotions Scale measuring parental self-reported emotional reactions to a child's crying is presented. The scale measures parent-oriented (amusement, anxiety, frustration) and infant-oriented (sympathy and empathy) emotional reactions to a child's crying, which has been defined as the most obvious early attachment behaviour. Participants and Procedure: A total of 495 parents of small children (including 376 mothers, no couples) took part in the study. Females were M = 27.79 (SD = 5.01) years old on average, whereas mean age of men was M = 31.71 (SD = 5.37) years. The majority of participants (74.90%) had one child. The average age of the assessed child was M = 9.17 months (SD = 4.43). Reliability and validity properties of the scale are presented. Results: The results confirmed the five-factor model, which showed adequate fit indices. The SER-PD has adequate internal consistency. The criterion-related validity of the scale was established by correlating five dimensions of parental emotional reactions to the child's crying with measures of dispositional empathy and contextually neutral emotional reactions. Conclusions: The SER-PD gives the opportunity for broader analyses of the parental responsiveness construct. It is a useful tool to examine parent-child interactions easily and noninvasively, in large samples, and in situations where qualitative data might be difficult to obtain.