PARENT-CHILD RELATION - SCALE FOR THE EVA LUATION OF THE FAMILY ENVIRONMENT OF ADOLESCENTS

The study of the family environment has been very extensive, allowing the development of different evaluation instruments on different areas (communication, cohesion, affect and control, among others). However, more research is required in Mexico, because publications on the deve loped instruments do not explain the psychometric characteristics. Oth er researches have developed indicators focused on the evaluation of d rug use or alcohol problems in the family. This paper presents the val idity and reliability of a scale aimed to evaluate the adolescente's p erception of his family environment (communication, support and cohesi on). This scale is important because it may be applied to evaluate the family environment and its relation with problematic behaviors such a s drug use, delinquency, suicidal attempt and so on. The sample of thi s study included 793 young high school students from private and publi c schools located in Mexico City. The average age of the subjects was 15.3 years. The final scale consisted in 42 items with four frequency options in a Likert like scale. Besides, the questionnaire had differe nt sections related to sociodemographic variables, drug consumption, d epression, suicidal attempt, social insecurity and other elements of f amily environment. The instrument was selfapplied in group in the clas sroom. The confidential aspect of the student's answers was emphasized . The reliability results were satisfactory (alpha = 0.95) for the tot al scale. The factor analysis results with varimax rotation and GLS me thod gave 5 factors. One of these factors apparently evaluated two dif erent conceptual dimensions (parents support and significative child s upport), instead of one. This aspect was tested through a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) that supported the two factor model. The reliab ility of each resulting area was higher than 0.68 in all cases (hostil ity and rejection = 0.79; parent's communication = 0.84; child communi cation = 0.88; parent's support = 0.83; significative child support = 0.68; daily child support = 0.71). The results were congruent in gener al with the areas that we pretended to measure with the instrument (co mmunication and support). Cohesion did not form a factor as we expecte d. Instead, we obtained a more specific dimension: hostility and rejec tion, that grouped these items. This is congruent with the findings of other authors. These results, as well as the psychometric characteris tics reported, support its applicability to evaluate adolescent's perc eption of family environment, as well as its relation with different p roblematic behaviors. Finally, we believe it is necessary to further i nvestigate aspects related with the criterion validity of the instrume nt, specially in families with specific dysfunctions.