This thesis focuses on associations between child, parent and family emotional and behavioural adjustment and a variety of challenging experiences. The parenting role has a critical influence on child development and parenting outcomes and its importance is reflected in the content of many parenting interventions. Paper 1 provides a comprehensive literature review of the available measures of parenting self-efficacy. The measures were quality rated for their psychometric and administrative properties. The findings indicated that large numbers of available measures were developed for specific research questions and may often be used in inappropriate circumstances. The measures were clarified so that the details of the sample, content and construct validity, responsiveness and interpretability, and administrative qualities were clear. The theoretical grounding of each of the measures was emphasized and, to overcome the inconsistent and confusing terminology within this paradigm, measures of parenting self-efficacy were distinguished from measures of parenting confidence, competence and self-esteem. The paper offers a timely and comprehensive summary for researchers, clinical psychologists and healthcare professionals. Paper 2 details an investigation into the first use of an international measure in the UK. The International Parenting Survey was used to identify associations between child, parent and family adjustment difficulties, and challenging circumstances, such as childhood illness or disability, parental psychological distress or family socio-economic deprivation. A total of 696 parents, each of at least one child aged between 2- and 12-years-old, completed a series of questionnaires at one time point. The results identified that children’s difficulties are associated with greater emotional and behavioural adjustment difficulties in children, and also implicated certain aspects of the parenting role, including parental psychological distress. The discussion reflects on the use of this measure within a UK sample of parents. Additionally, the clinical implications of the study, its pitfalls and areas of future research are discussed. Paper 3 provides a critical reflection of the research process as a whole and examines the strengths and limitations of Papers 1 and 2. Personal reflections are also provided.