Thesis(M.S.)--Auburn University, 2006. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.

Research on child misbehavior has examined the influence of many factors, including the child’s typical behaviors and functioning, child temperament, parenting strategies, parental stress, parental attributions, perceptions of parenting, and parental tolerance.The concept of parental tolerance has recently been advocated as an important variable influencing child misbehavior by Brestan, Eyberg, Algina, Johnson, and Boggs (2003) who developed two parent report measures for it. The present study investigated the validity of one of these measures, the Child Rearing Inventory (CRI). In the present study, parental tolerance as measured by the CRI was compared to other standardized measures of parent and child behaviors and observational data obtained from mother and child interactions. Scores on the CRI were expected to correlate with scores on the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI), Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Second Edition (BASC-2), Parenting Stress Index/Short Form (PSI/SF), and Perceptions of Parenting Inventory (POPI), and the frequency of directives, prompts, and criticisms. However, only one of the hypotheses was partially supported, where there was a significant positive correlation between scores on the CRI and the number of directives regarding the child leaving the area. The reliability of the CRI in the present study is questionable, due to an alpha of .64. This was compared to good alpha levels of .88 and .93 on the ECBI scales. The findings of the study demonstrate the need for further study of the CRI as a measure of parental tolerance, investigating its reliability with a younger age range, before exploring the validity further.