Profile of Parenting Study

Uses of the Profile of Parenting Study

The POPS questionnaire matches children and parents based on self-reported strengths and weaknesses. The questionnaire is not only a preparatory tool but also a record used in the private and public sectors to develop educational programs and professional development services. Prospective parents respond to 57 items within nine topic areas, basing their responses on the action they intend to take in the planning process. Although a high score may change the course of action, the tool is meant only to assess need, not to assign blame or pass judgment. by understanding appropriate principles and practices, prospective parents apply and adapt them according to the experience of both the child and parent. Parents strike a balance among the child's background, accepted parenting principles, and their own experience.

The balance depends on a number of outcomes, including several protective factors of the Strengthening Families approach, a national initiative designed to guide policy decisions and program development for family services. The measures of the POPS are drawn from several other communimetric tools and family services, including the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) tool, the family advocacy and Support Tool (FAST), and the Adult Needs and Strengths Assessment (ANSA). These are open-access tools meant to facilitate the decision making of prospective parents, not measure them according to an etiological standard.

All items listed on the POPS are descriptive, tied to planning, and include child-centered action levels dependent on cultural considerations and situational circumstances. First, the POPS questionnaire measures parental resilience, a barometer of mature and responsible behavior in response to the inevitable adversity of parenting. Second, it asks for strong social connections that ground the child in a real world of supportive friends and family. Third, it tests knowledge of parenting and child development, especially for applicants with difficult upbringings, and ensures that applicants satisfy the child's basic physiological needs and provide concrete support during crises. Fourth, it maximizes the child's social and emotional competence through early detection of problematic behaviors, and finally, it gauges the child's support network beyond the parental dyad and detects risks from other children in the family or surrounding neighborhood.

Structure of the Profile of Parenting Study

The POPS questionnaire consists of nine topic areas, each with its own subset of indices. For each prompt, applicants rate themselves on a scale from zero to three. The scores are assessed along two dimensions, needs and strengths. The needs dimension directs the preparatory plan. A zero on the needs dimension requires no action, and a one suggests possible but not immediate intervention. A two compels some level of preventive action, and a three inhibits the applicant and requires immediate action.

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