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Psychometric Properties of the Parent and Youth Versions of the Inadequate Boundaries Questionnaire in Community and Clinical Samples of Adolescents

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Abstract

The Inadequate Boundaries Questionnaire (IBQ) was created as a multi-dimensional measure of boundary violations in parent-child relationships. Use of the IBQ has been increasing; however, its psychometric properties, including its proposed five-factor structure, have yet to be comprehensively evaluated. The current study examined the factor structure, reliability, mother-adolescent agreement, and convergent and discriminant validity of the IBQ-Parent and -Youth English versions among community and clinical adolescents and their mothers. Confirmatory factor analysis most strongly supported four factors: Guilt Induction-Psychological Control, Parentification, No Boundaries (Enmeshment), and Triangulation. The scales showed acceptable to excellent reliability. Mother-adolescent agreement was moderate in the healthy community sample and weaker in the clinical sample. Convergent and discriminant associations supported the validity of the Guilt Induction-Psychological Control scale, with a more complex picture emerging for other scales. Implications of these findings and directions for future research with the IBQ are discussed.

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Notes

  1. We evaluated whether there were associations between the IBQ scales, across informants/versions, and adolescent age or gender in our two samples, finding mostly non-significant correlations (only 4 of 48 were significant: boys reported higher paternal triangulation and parentification than girls in the community sample, mothers reported higher levels on the no boundaries scale for girls than boys in the clinical sample, and older adolescents reported greater maternal triangulation in the clinical sample). Overall, there was not evidence of an influence of adolescent gender or age on IBQ scores. However, this could differ in other samples with more varied age range and balanced gender distribution (samples in our study were majority female).

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Funding

Funding was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health, F31MH100827, T32MH018269, and T32MH018268; American Psychological Foundation, No grant number; American Psychoanalytic Association, No grant number; McNair Family Foundation, No grant number; University of Houston Small Grants Program, No grant number.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yale Child Study Center, Yale University, 230 S. Frontage Rd, 06520, New Haven, CT, USA

    Francesca Penner

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Francesca Penner, Kiana Cano, Charles McGill & Carla Sharp

  3. Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, USA

    Charles McGill

  4. Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Salome Vanwoerden

  5. Centre for Development Support, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

    Carla Sharp

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  1. Francesca Penner
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Correspondence to Francesca Penner.

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Penner, F., Cano, K., McGill, C. et al. Psychometric Properties of the Parent and Youth Versions of the Inadequate Boundaries Questionnaire in Community and Clinical Samples of Adolescents. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 55, 705–718 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-022-01438-0

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