Stress Index for Parents of Adolescents: SIPA Hand-Scorable Answer Sheet/Profile Forms

The SIPA is a screening and diagnostic instrument that identifies areas of stress in parent–adolescent interactions, allowing examination of the relationship of parenting stress to adolescent characteristics, parent characteristics, the quality of the adolescent–parent interactions, and stressful life circumstances.

• Areas of parent-focused inspection include life restrictions, relationship with spouse/partner, social alienation, and incompetence/guilt.
• Areas of adolescent-focused inspection include moodiness/emotional liability, social isolation/withdrawal, delinquency/antisocial, and failure to achieve or persevere.
• Useful for family counselling, forensic evaluations for adolescent custody, identification of dysfunctional parent-adolescent systems, prevention programs designed to reduce parental stress, and intervention and treatment planning in high stress areas.