A Parent–Child Relationship Scale Derived From the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA)

Abstract

To examine a measure of children's perception of their relationships with parents. The Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA) was administered to 114 inpatients (aged 9-18 years) at a tertiary asthma center from 1991 to 1994. Ten items from the CAPA were developed as a separate scale, the Parent-Child Relationship Scale (PCRS). Some subjects (82) were given family and child assessments. The PCRS had good internal reliability (Cronbach alpha = .72). Construct validity was demonstrated by correlations with child and parent report on the Family Assessment Device (r= 0.46 and 0.35; p < .001) and high expressed emotion of the parent (t= 2.89; p < .01). Divergent validity may be evidenced by the fact that the PCRS was not significantly related to high emotional over-involvement. Predictive validity was shown by significant correlations with the total problem scores of parents' (r = 0.28; p < .01) and children's (r = 0.41; p < .001) Achenbach reports, and prediction of CAPA psychiatric diagnosis (OR = 5.83; 95% CI 1.80-22.63). The PCRS can potentially be used to assess the child's perspective of the parent-child relationship for research or clinical purposes and deserves further study.