32 questionnaire items with a 5-point scale anchored by never (1) and always (5).
To obtain an overall Authoritative Parenting Style score - mean all 15 items - 1,3,5,7,9,11,12,14,18,21,22,25,27,29,31
To obtain an overall Authoritarian Parenting Style score - mean all 12 items - 2,4,6,10,13,16,19,23,26,28,30,32
To obtain an overall Permissive Parenting Style score - mean all 5 items - 8,15,17,20,24
The above scoring protocol results in three continuous variables (three mean scores for each parent) and not categorical variables. Typically, most researchers use these three continuous variables correlational, multiple regression, and/or structural equation modeling analyses. A few researchers have attempted to convert these continuous variables into three categorical variables by using statistical procedures such as median splits or cluster analysis (see a statistical consultant for these procedures)
