Validation of the Italian version of the Parental Attitudes Scales (PAD)

Introduction Parental attitudes, taken in the three orthogonal dimensions of pleasure-displeasure, arousal-non arousal, dominance-submissive, contribute in creating the emotional climate in wich children's cognition and affectivity develop. Objectives Parental attitudes can be measured via the Parental Attitudes Scales (PAD), a 46-item self-administered instrument counting three subscales. Aims To explore the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the PAD. Methods The PAD was administered to a sample of 163 Italian parents (77 males, 86 females) having children aged between three months and eight years and living in three different towns of Tuscany (Italy). Principal Component Analyses (PCA) were conducted and alpha coefficients were explored. The concurrent validity of the questionnaire was examinated by correlating the PAD scores with data from the Family Assessment Device (FAD) and the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Results Results from initial and PCA analyses suggested that several items of the questionnaire perform poorly and should be removed. Results supported a three-factor solution consisting of 36 items and accounting for 28,3% of the variance. Internal consistency for the short version of the PAD was high (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.81). The PAD scores showed statistically significant correlations with the PANAS and the FAD dimensions. Conclusions Findings suggest that a reduced version of the scale could better represent the construct measured by the PAD. Overall, the short versionof the questionnaire proved to be a valid and reliable measure of parental attitudes.