Development and Initial Validation of the Adolescent Routines Questionnaire: Parent and Self-Report

It is well documented that family routines contribute to children's wellbeing. Yet, the impact of routines on adolescent adjustment is not fully understood. The paucity of research examining the role of routines in adolescent adjustment is likely due to the lack of empirically derived instruments measuring routines in adolescent populations. Thus, the objective of the current study was to develop psychometrically sound parent and self-report measures of adolescents' daily routines: The Adolescent Routines Questionnaire: Parent- and Self-Report (ARQ:PR/SR). Following item generation and elimination, a 26-item parent version with a five-factor solution and a 20-item adolescent self-report version with a four-factor solution were derived. Initial reliability and validity estimates suggest adequate to good internal consistency across all subscales and total scores, as well as moderate to good evidence of concurrent and convergent validity for both parent and self-report scales. Additionally, both the parent and self-report versions of the ARQ were positively correlated with adolescent adjustment and negatively correlated with parent-child conflict and externalizing behavior problems. Finally, both measures demonstrated incremental validity in predicting adolescent positive adjustment and adaptive skills above and beyond an existing measure of family routines. These results suggest that the ARQ:PR/SR is a promising new assessment tool for measuring adolescents' daily routines.