Parental Gatekeeping Measure: Adaptation and Validation of the Maternal Gatekeeping Measure in Study of Polish Mothers and Fathers

Most former studies on maternal gatekeeping have been limited to mothers’ reports and the United States context. Accordingly, we modified the Maternal Gatekeeping Measure (MGM) to measure both mothers’ and fathers’ beliefs and behaviors and titled the new version the Parental Gatekeeping Measure (PGM). We conducted two studies on Polish parents having children under 3 years old. In the first, aimed to verify the internal structure and reliability of the PGM, we recruited 290 parents (aged 22–45; 54% mothers). Next, 113 heterosexual dyads of parents (n = 226; aged 23–44; 50% mothers) were recruited in Study 2, which aimed to investigate the PGM’s criterion validity by examining its relationships with parental identity, values, dyadic perfectionism, and another measure of parental gatekeeping. The original three-factor structure of the MGM was replicated in the modified Polish version. Additionally, we successfully established the gender invariance of the PGM and found significant differences in the intensity of gatekeeping between mothers and fathers. Our analysis revealed that stronger parental gatekeeping was related to stronger dyadic perfectionism, control, discouragement, and traditional values. Thus, the Polish modification of the MGM is a reliable, valid, and psychometrically sound measure of parental gatekeeping beliefs and behaviors.