Defensiveness and the Assessment of Parental Stress and Anxiety

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Abstract
The effects of levels of defensiveness (as measured by the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale) on self-report measures of parental stress and anxiety were examined for mothers of children clinically referred to a developmental evaluation clinic and for mothers of well-adjusted children working up to their academic potential. High-defensive mothers reported stress and anxiety amounts that were significantly lower than those reported by low-defensive mothers. This difference was observed for mothers of well-adjusted children as well as for mothers of clinically referred children. Results thus suggest that knowledge of level of defensiveness is an important consideration in the clinical interpretation of scores from self-inventories.