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 p arental child rearing behaviour. In this study a shortened version of the E MBU was used with an English population consisting of male offenders and ma le and female non-offenders. The analysis showed that maternal scores on pe rceived emotional warmth were higher than paternal scores in all three samp les. Perceptions of maternal rejection and over-protection were also higher than paternal scores among non-offenders. Male offenders and male non-offe nders, and male and female non-offenders were compared on perceived parenta l 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 o ther countries which suggested that the non-offenders perceived their paren tal behaviour similarly to other Western countries, whereas offenders perce ived higher levels of parental rejection than the comparison nations. (C) 1 999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.