The Parental Bonding Instrument: A psychometric measure to assess parenting practices in the homes in Bangladesh

- We validated the 'Parental Bonding Instrument' (PBI) in Bangladeshi culture.
- Exploratory factor analysis identified a two-factor structure of the PBI.
- The Bangla version PBI demonstrated strong validity and internal consistency.
- Parental bonding was associated with cognitive distortions and antisocial behaviors.
- This study opens the door of future research on parenting practices in Bangladesh.

There is growing importance of the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) in clinical practice and research on parenting and parental bonding. Since the development of this diagnostic tool (Parker et al., Brit. J. Med. Psycho.1979; 52:1-10), a number of validation studies have been done in various cultures. The aim of the present study was to translate the measure into Bangla and validate in Bangladeshi culture. A total of 200 adolescents participated in the study. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the data from 191 participants (who provided complete responses) identified a two-factor (Care and Overprotection) structure of the PBI with 17 items. The two factors together explained 44.18% of the total variance. The factors showed moderate to very high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.863 for Care; 0.622 for Overprotection), and very strong convergent and discriminant validity as evident by their correlations with the measures of cognitive distortions and antisocial behaviors. In line with the original tool we defined four types of parenting style, such as Affectionate constraint, Affectionless control, Optimal parenting, and Neglectful parenting. This study opens the door of future research on parenting practices and parent-child relationships in Bangladesh.