The Short-Form of the Coparenting Across Family Structures Scale (CoPAFS-27): A Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Family Studies
• Sociology

Background:

• Accurate measurement of coparenting is crucial for understanding family dynamics.
• Existing scales may be lengthy, posing challenges for research and clinical application.
• Differentiating coparenting across various family structures (intact, separated, never-involved) is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a short-form version of the Coparenting Across Family Structures Scale (CoPAFS).
• To create an efficient and psychometrically sound tool for assessing coparenting.
• To enable differentiation of coparenting across family types, parental gender, and socioeconomic status.

Main Methods:

• Pilot study utilizing two independent parent samples (N=252 and N=329).
• Psychometric evaluation including stability, reliability, and internal consistency of the scale.
• Factor analysis to reduce the original 56-item scale to a 27-item, 5-component measure.

Main Results:

• The revised 27-item CoPAFS scale demonstrated favorable psychometric properties.
• The scale was reduced from 56 items to 5 core components: Respect, Trust, Valuing the other parent, Communication, and Hostility.
• The shortened scale is suitable for evaluating key dimensions of coparenting.

Conclusions:

• The 27-item CoPAFS is a reliable and valid measure for assessing coparenting across diverse family structures.
• This efficient tool can significantly aid research and clinical practice.
• Findings support the scale's utility in understanding nuanced coparenting relationships.