Development and validation of a self-assessment tool to assess resource parents' personal attributes, knowledge, attitudes & behaviors around caring for teens (RPSAC-T): an exploratory study

The current study develops and evaluates the psychometric properties of a tool to assess resource parents' (the collective term used to refer to kinship/foster/adoptive parents) knowledge, perceptions, attitudes, and skills to care for teens placed in their homes. After first engaging 34 resource parents informally for feedback on initial item creation and selection, the internal consistency and reliability of the Resource Parent Self-Assessment on Caregiving for Teens (RPSAC-T) was examined across two samples of resource parents. including an initial validation (n = 170) sample, and cross-validation (n = 329) sample. This three-stage process revealed 17 characteristics and 10 competencies retained for a total of 27 constructs measured by 161 items. The RPSAC-T tool shows promise as a meaningful, potentially reliable, and valid measure.