Quick Parenting Assessment (QPA)

The Quick Parenting Assessment (QPA), developed at Vanderbilt University, is a brief, non-stigmatizing approach to support parents. The tool helps health care providers give parents the right level of parenting support. The QPA can be used in pediatrics for children ages 1 to 10 years in settings such as well-child visits and behavioral assessments.

The QPA is designed to improve children’s socioemotional health and prevent disease. Exposure to unhealthy discipline is associated with many mental and physical health problems including child abuse, violence, depression, drug use, suicide attempts, heart disease, lung disease and obesity. In a validation study, children with elevated QPAs were nine times more likely to have behavior problems compared with children with low QPAs. An important step to improve children’s socioemotional health and decreasing rates of disease is to ensure that all parents are using healthy discipline strategies.

The QPA can be used as a stand-alone screening tool, or combined with the Pediatric ACEs Algorithm, a more comprehensive ACEs screening instrument that screens for other childhood stressors and parents' stressors. For use of the QPA, commercial or non-commercial, see page 1 of the QPA Instructions.

For inquiries, email Seth Scholer.