Mood and memories of early parenting: Connotation of two parental rearing style questionnaires

The relationship consistently found between adult depression and recalled parental rearing styles cannot, as yet, confirm that early parenting plays a role in the etiology of depression. Memories of adverse childhood experiences may be epiphenomena of depression. The connotative meaning of questionnaire items assessing recalled parenting may be an important moderator variable in this respect. In the present study the connotation of the items of two frequently used questionnaires measuring memories of parental rearing styles (i.e. the Parental Bonding Instrument and the EMBU) were evaluated by independent raters. With high interrater-agreement, it was shown that most items and subscales have a very clear positive or negative connotation. Comparisons across the two instruments revealed that homologous subscales do not differ from one another in terms of connotative meaning. Implications and suggestions for future research in this area are discussed.