Abstract
IntroductionThe Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale (Straus et al., 1998) is the most commonly used instrument to document violence against children in the general population. It was translated into French and adapted to be used in several population-based surveys over the past 15 years. ObjectiveThis study aims at verifying the internal consistency and the factorial structure of the three subscales pertaining to violent behaviors (psychological aggression, minor physical violence/corporal punishment and severe physical violence) as well as the invariance of the models according to the sex of the respondent parent. MethodThe data were derived from the latest survey on family violence in Québec conducted in 2012 with two independent samples of 4029 mothers and of 1342 fathers of 0- to 17-year-old children. Mothers are on average 38.7 years old and hold a university degree or college diploma (76%). They are most often in employment (82%) and come from two-parent families (71%). Fathers are on average 41.5 years old and have a university degree or college diploma (60%). They most often hold a paid job (91%) and come from a two-parent family (82%). ResultsThe results show that the three subscales have good internal consistency, as measured by the polychoric alphas. The factorial structure of the subscales was also confirmed for both samples, although the measure of severe physical violence showed some particularities notably because of the asymmetrical distribution of the ordinal answers. ConclusionThe French translation and adaptation of the PC-CTS has good psychometric qualities and its use in the Francophonie context for epidemiological surveillance of parental violence is recommended.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have