The tool is designed to measure the intensity of parental stress understood as a set of processes conducive to aversive psychological and physiological reactions and caused by the attempt to adapt to the requirements of parenthood. The tool focuses on three sources of stress: related to child characteristics, to parent characteristics and, finally, to situational or demographic factors.

The PSI-4 is composed of 120 items, of which 101 are included in the two main scales: the Parent  scale and the Child  scale.

The Parent  scale includes the following subscales:

• Competence (C) – measures how comfortable the parent feels in his/her role and whether his/her performance is successful,
• Attachment (A) – measures how close the relationship between parent and child is as well as a parent’s ability to recognize and fulfil his/her child’s needs,
• Depression (D) – measures a parent’s mood,
• Health (H) – measures the extent to which a parent’s health condition affects his/her level of stress,
• Isolation (I) – measures social support a parent is provided with,
• Role Restriction (RR) – measures the degree to which a parent feels his/her freedom is limited and his/her identity is endangered by the performing of the parent role,
• Spouse/Parenting Partner Relationship (PPR) – measures the sense of emotional and physical support provided by a parent’s spouse or partner.

The Child  scale includes the following subscales:

• Distractability/Hyperactivity (DH) – measures features of child behaviour which fit the symptoms of ADHD
• Adaptability (AD) – measures the child’s ability to adapt to changes in the social or physical environment
• Demandigness (D) – measures the parent’s perception of his/her child’s demands
• Mood (M) – measures the child’s mood
• Reinforces Parent (RP) – measures the parent’s experience of a relationship with his/her child as reinforcing
• Acceptability (AC) – measures the extent to which the child’s characteristics fulfil the parent’s demands

The examinee formulates answers using the five grades scale or chooses from among four or five options provided. The Parent  and the Child  scales together make up the Total Stress Index.

Another 19 items are included in the additional Life Stress  scale which allows to identify sources of stress beyond the parent-child system (such as a loss of job, death of a family member, divorce). In this case the examinee chooses the Yes or No answer – depending on whether a given event took place within 12 months before the examination. It takes approx. 20 min. to fill out the full version of the PSI-4.

The abbreviated version PSI-4-SF is composed of 36 items drawn from the full version and distributed equally among three scales: Parental Distress (PD), Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction (P-CDI) and Difficult Child (DC). Together they form the Total Stress Index. It takes approx. 10–15 min. to fill out the abbreviated version. It allows for a provisional assessment of main stress dimensions and suggesting further diagnosis.

The advantage of the tool is that its clear and coherent theoretical model is solidly embedded in practice. 

Theory:

• The theoretical model and the structure of the tool enable to assess parental stress in the context of the whole functioning family system and environment in which the family is located; the subscales allow to locate precisely the sources of stress.

Embedded in practice:

• Items are clear and straightforward, close to the way parents themselves talk about their problems,
• Scores in scales enable to develop further assessment guidelines,
• The scores also show how the intervention can be planned – whether it should be focused on helping a parent, a child or on strengthening their mutual relationship.

Materials:

• Kit (original manual, polish manual, PSI-4 question sheets (25 copies), multi-layered PSI-4 answer sheets with a key (25 copies), PSI-4 profile sheets (25 copies), multi-layered PSI-4-SF question and answer sheets with a key and norms (25 copies))
• Original manual (translated into Polish)
• Polish manual
• PSI-4 question sheets (25 copies)
• Multi-layered PSI-4 answer sheets with a key (25 copies)
• PSI-4 profile sheets (25 copies)
• Multi-layered PSI-4-SF question and answer sheets with a key and norms (25 copies)