An evaluation of the shortened EMBU scale in young offenders and non-offenders in England

The EMBU has been used in a number of countries as a measure of perceived parental child rearing behaviour. In this study a shortened version of the EMBU was used with an English population consisting of male offenders and male and female non-offenders. The analysis showed that maternal scores on perceived emotional warmth were higher than paternal scores in all three samples. Perceptions of maternal rejection and over-protection were also higher than paternal scores among non-offenders. Male offenders and male non-offenders, and male and female non-offenders were compared on perceived parental rejection, emotional warmth and over-protection. The results showed that the male offenders perceived their fathers as being more rejecting than the male non-offenders. There were no significant differences between the male and female non-offenders. Broad comparisons were made with findings from other countries which suggested that the non-offenders perceived their parental behaviour similarly to other Western countries, whereas offenders perceived higher levels of parental rejection than the comparison nations. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.