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Assessing Children's Responses to Interparental Conflict: Validation and Short Scale Development of SIS and
Tonje Holt1, Maren Sand Helland2, Kristin Gustavson2,3
1Division of Mental & Physical health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, P.O. Box 777, Skøyen, 0213, Oslo, Norway. tonje.holt@fhi.no.
Insights
This study validated and shortened the Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale (CPIC) and the Security in the Interparental Subsystem (SIS) for Scandinavian youth. The concise versions maintain validity and predictive strength for assessing children's views on parental conflict.
Area of Science:
- Child psychology
- Developmental psychology
- Family studies
Background:
- Children's Perception of the Interparental Conflict Scale (CPIC) and Security in the Interparental Subsystem (SIS) are key measures of interparental conflict.
- Validating these scales in a Scandinavian context and developing shorter versions are crucial for efficient research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To validate the CPIC-properties scale and a modified SIS scale in a Scandinavian sample.
- To develop concise short versions of both scales.
- To assess the psychometric properties and predictive validity of the full and short scale versions.
Main Methods:
- Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were employed to examine the factor structure of the scales.
- Regression analyses were used to create and evaluate the predictive strength of the short scales.
- The study involved 393 children and youth aged 10-15 years.
Main Results:
- Both the full and short versions of the CPIC-properties and the modified SIS demonstrated excellent model fit.
- The CPIC-properties scale was reduced from 25 to 17 items; the modified SIS from 38 to 17 items.
- Internal consistencies were satisfactory, and short scales showed comparable predictive strengths to full scales.
Conclusions:
- The study supports the validity of the full and short versions of the CPIC-properties and the modified SIS in a Scandinavian context.
- The development of shorter scales offers a more efficient tool for research on interparental conflict perception in children.
- Future research should further validate these short scales in diverse populations.
Abstract:
The Children's Perception of the Interparental Conflict Scale (CPIC) and The Security in the Interparental Subsystem (SIS) are two widely used scales capturing (a) children's perception of the interparental conflict properties and (b) children's reactions to the conflict. The aims of this study were to validate the part of CPIC measuring children's perception of the conflict (CPIC-properties) and a modified SIS-version in a Scandinavian context and to develop concise short versions of the scales. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were used to analyze the underlying factor structure of the full and short versions of the scales in a sample of N = 393 children and youth aged 10-15 years old (M age = 11.1, SD = 0.5; 52.2% girls). Regression analyses were used in creating the short scales and in investigating the predictive strengths of the short versions. The full and short versions of the CPICproperties and the modified SIS had excellent fit according to a two level model (CPICproperties) and a three-level model (modified SIS). The CPIC-properties was reduced from 25 items to 17 items and the modified SIS was reduced from 38 items to 17 items. The internal consistencies of both long and short versions were satisfactory. The predictive strengths of the short subscales were comparable to the full subscales'. The findings support the validity of the full and short versions of the CPIC-properties and the modified SIS. The advantages of the short versions are discussed; these scales should be validated in future studies.