Empirical evidence for an invariant three-factor structure of the Parental Bonding Instrument in six European countries

Heider, Dirk; Matschinger, Herbert; Bernert, Sebastian; Vilagut, Gemma; Martínez-Alonso, Montserrat; Dietrich, Sandra; Angermeyer, Matthias C.; the ESEMeD/MHEDEA 2000 investigators,

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2005.05.002

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Volume 135, Issue 3 , Pages 237-247, 30 June 2005

Empirical evidence for an invariant three-factor structure of the Parental Bonding Instrument in six European countries

Dirk Heider
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Leipzig, Johannisallee 20, D-04317 Leipzig, Germany
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 341 9724 566; fax: +49 341 9724 539.
Herbert Matschinger
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Leipzig, Johannisallee 20, D-04317 Leipzig, Germany
Sebastian Bernert
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Leipzig, Johannisallee 20, D-04317 Leipzig, Germany
Gemma Vilagut
- Health Services Research Unit, Institut Municipal d'Investigacio Medica (IMIM-IMAS), Barcelona, Spain
Montserrat Martínez-Alonso
- Health Services Research Unit, Institut Municipal d'Investigacio Medica (IMIM-IMAS), Barcelona, Spain
Sandra Dietrich
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Leipzig, Johannisallee 20, D-04317 Leipzig, Germany
Matthias C. Angermeyer
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Leipzig, Johannisallee 20, D-04317 Leipzig, Germany
the ESEMeD/MHEDEA 2000 investigators
- The European Study of the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders (ESEMeD/MHEDEA 2000) investigators are Jordi Alonso, Matthias Angermeyer, Sebastian Bernert, Ronny Bruffaerts, Traolach S. Brugha, Giovanni de Girolamo, Ron de Graaf, Koen Demyttenaere, Isabelle Gasquet, Josep Maria Haro, Steven J. Katz, Ronald C. Kessler, Viviane Kovess, Jean Pierre Lépine, Johan Ormel, Gabriella Polidori, and Gemma Vilagut. Additional project investigators are Josué Almansa, Saena Arbabzadeh-Bouchez, Jaume Autonell, Mariola Bernal, Martine A. Buist-Bouwman, Miquel Codony, Antònia Domingo-Salvany, Montserrat Ferrer, Sam S. Joo, Montserrat Martínez-Alonso, Fausto Mazzi, Zoe Morgan, Pierluigi Morosini, Concepció Palacín, Albert Sánchez, Nick Taub, and Wilma A.M. Vollebergh.

Received 11 November 2004; received in revised form 13 April 2005; accepted 5 May 2005.

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to test the Parental Bonding Instrument's (PBI) three-factor structure (care, overprotection, and authoritarianism) found by Cox et al. (2000) [Cox, B.J., Enns, M.W., Clara, I.P. 2000, The Parental Bonding Instrument: confirmatory evidence for a three-factor model in a psychiatric clinical sample and in the National Comorbidity Survey, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 35 (2000) 353–357.] on an eight-item short form of the scale. A total of 8813 respondents from the six European countries participating in the ESEMeD project (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and Spain) completed either the PBI-paternal or the PBI-maternal scale. Maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare the original factor model of Cox et al. with a three-factor solution that emerged from an exploration of the structure with principal component factor analysis. When gender and age subgroups, as well as different countries, were taken into account, the accuracy of the model was confirmed. The fit indices for the new model indicated a generally better model fit than the ones for the model originally developed by Cox et al. Further efforts should be directed to the modeling of the dimension authoritarianism. The results provide the opportunity to estimate the influence of the extracted factors on mental disorders in different countries. The application of the short form of the PBI seems suitable primarily for large epidemiological studies.

Keywords: Parental Bonding Instrument, Cross-cultural comparison, Confirmatory factor analysis