Development, reliability, and validity of Father-Toddler Interaction Multiaxial Assessment Scale

This study aimed to assess the reliability and validity of the Father-Toddler Interaction Multiaxial Assessment (FTI-MAXA), designed to evaluate and rate the quality of father-toddler interaction. Two trained raters assessed 105 children aged 13-40 months (27.28 ± 6.7) and their fathers using a Likert-type scale (1 = very poor, 5 = very good) across 10 items: physical involvement, affective expressiveness, pleasure, responsiveness, reciprocity, joint attention, nonintrusiveness, adaptive flexibility, support, and acceptance. Each father and child pair was rated on three dimensions: involvement, reciprocity, and flexibility-acceptance. In addition, Brief Infant/Toddler Social Emotional Assessment Scale (BITSEA), Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC), Parent-Infant Relationship Global Assessment Scale, Brief Symptom Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, and Child Attachment Pattern were applied to the fathers. The internal consistency of FTI-MAXA total scores-of both scorers-was found to be excellent (Cronbach's α was .92, .96 for fathers and .98, .98 for children). Interpersonal reliability of FTI-MAXA scores was excellent for fathers and children (p < .001). FTI-MAXA-father subscores were negatively correlated with the child's ABC-total scores and positively correlated with BITSEA-competence scores. FTI-MAXA-child subscores showed positive correlation with BITSEA-competence scores and negative correlation with ABC scores. These findings underscore the validity and reliability of the FTI-MAXA, which offers dependable global ratings of father-toddler interactions in a laboratory setting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).