Parent as a Teacher (PAAT) Inventory
Most mothers and fathers want to be good role models and improve themselves as parents—ambitions reflected in increased enrollment in parenting classes. By surveying parents about their understanding of the parent-child interactive system, the Parent as a Teacher (PAAT) Inventory provides a basis for parenting programs. Parents describe their feelings about creativity, frustration, control, play, and teaching/learning. PAAT uses a composite attitude scale to help mothers and fathers of preschool and primary grade children (ages 3 to 9) recognize their favorable qualities and identify realms in which they need further personal growth. Parents receive feedback about their behavior through individual parent profiles.

Common uses for PAAT include: determining how parents perceive themselves, offering feedback about changes parents should consider making, formulating a suitable curriculum emphasis for particular groups of parents, and evaluating how certain attitudes and behaviors are modified in response to educational intervention.

PAAT can be administered individually or in a group. The directions instruct parents to read statements about their perceptions of their children. Parents are assured that PAAT is not a test; it is a means of expressing their feelings.

The Parent Identification Form helps researchers determine similarities and differences among populations of parents or compare pre- and posttest scores.

STS publishes PAAT Inventory/Identification Booklets and Profiles in Spanish to facilitate the assessment of parents who feel more comfortable communicating in Spanish.

Parent Success Indicator (PSI)
The Parent Success Indicator (PSI) is Robert and Shirley Strom’s newest family inventory tool. It is a two-generational instrument designed for parents of children ten to fourteen years of age. Typically, a parent’s role is most stressful when children are at this age.

The PSI consists of a parent survey and a child survey (two-generational). These surveys provide parents with self-reports as well as the perceptions of their children. This allows adults to make better decisions about self-improvement because they can consider the point of view of those they are trying to influence.

Some common uses for the PSI are to: find out how parents view their assets and limitations during this demanding period of parenting, determine how parents are seen by their daughters and sons, compare child and parent impressions of the parent performance, give feedback to individual parents about the attitudes and behaviors they might consider changing, design curriculum for parent groups with shared characteristics, and detect how parent-child interaction changes in response to educational intervention.

The PSI focuses on six major facets of parenting skills. They are: communication, use of time, teaching, frustration, satisfaction, and information needs. Through a series of survey questions, the PSI examines how well parent-child interaction is maintained within each of these areas.

The PSI can be administered to parents of children 10 to 14 years old, children in the same age group, or to both the child and parent groups.

As with the PAAT, the PSI includes an identification form that helps researchers determine similarities and differences among populations or to compare pre- and posttest scores to determine the effects of intervention.

The PSI Booklets and Profiles are available in English and Spanish.

Grandparent Strengths and Needs Inventory (GSNI)
A multigenerational assessment instrument, the Grandparent Strengths and Needs Inventory (GSNI) is intended to help grandparents recognize their favorable qualities and identify aspects of their family relationships which need further growth. GSNI can be used as part of an educational program for older adults in churches, senior centers, retirement communities, and long-term care facilities.

By including inventories for parents and grandchildren, GSNI provides a broad perspective on family interaction. In their inventories, parents and grandchildren express how they view their grandparents’ attitudes and behavior.

Six subscales measure a grandparent’s effectiveness:

• Satisfaction—aspects of being a grandparent that are pleasing
• Success—ways in which grandparents successfully perform their roles
• Teaching—the kinds of lessons grandparents are expected to provide
• Difficulty—problems encountered with grandparenting obligations
• Frustration—behaviors of grandchildren that upset grandparents
• Information Needs—things grandparents need to know about grandchildren

Grandparents may review their pre- and posttest responses in Grandparent Profiles.