The Barkin Index of Maternal Functioning: an evaluation and foundations for a new parental functioning scale

In some contexts, including those that involve community healthcare, the functional status of mothers who have infants is of particular interest. This status has been assessed with the Barkin Index of Maternal Functioning (BIMF), proposed by its developers as an improvement over preexisting scales. The present study comprises a description and evaluation of the BIMF, which is revealed to have a number of shortcomings. Solutions proposed to overcome these shortcomings result in a new scale, the Parenting-an-Infant Competence Scale (PICS). This new scale has the prospect of greater psychometric acceptability as well as wider clinical and research applicability.