Parental Perceptions of the Impact of a Child’s Complex Chronic Condition: A Validation Study of the Impact on Family Scale

Parental Perceptions of the Impact of a Child’s Complex Chronic Condition: A Validation Study of the Impact on Family Scale

Alves SP; Braz AC; Graça L; Fontaine AM

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

2024

Middle Aged; Parents; Male; Personal Satisfaction; Surveys and Questionnaires; Child; Humans; Adult; Adolescent; Perception; Female; Chronic Disease; adolescent; Reproducibility of Results; Family Relations; Article; cerebral palsy; parent; construct validity; parents; validation study; chronic disease; scoring system; satisfaction; Likert scale; Portugal; psychometry; reproducibility; child health; emotional stress; human; child; female; male; adult; perception; psychology; questionnaire; middle aged; disease; childhood disease; life satisfaction; family relation; educational status; confirmatory factor analysis; sociodemographics; family life; test retest reliability; cohesion; impact on family; Impact on Family Scale; parental care; pediatric complex chronic illness; satisfaction with life; social cohesion

The diagnosis of a child’s complex chronic illness may impact family relationships and cohesion. The Impact on Family Scale (IFS) is an instrument used to assess the parental perception of the effects of children’s chronic illness on family life. With a sample of 110 mothers and fathers between the ages of 29 and 50 who have a child with a complex chronic illness, we examine evidence of the validity of the IFS for use in Portugal within this specific family configuration, (1) comparing its factor structure with the original one; (2) assessing its reliability; and (3) evaluating its relationship with life satisfaction and family cohesion/acceptance. As expected, CFA analysis showed that IFS is a one-factor reliable instrument with 12 items (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.910), which are negatively correlated with satisfaction with life (r = −0.229, p = 0.016) and positively correlated with family acceptance and cohesion (r = 0.363; p < 0.001). The results support the validity of the IFS in families with children and adolescents with a complex chronic illness. The implications of the use of this instrument for research and professional practice is analyzed. © 2024 by the authors.

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