title: Preventive child-focused family work: development of instrument in adult psychiatry.
abstract: It is well-known that a parent's mental disorder has a significant psychosocial influence on the development of her or his children. This study reports the development process and psychometric testing of the preventive child-focused family work (PCF-FW) questionnaire in adult psychiatric settings. The PCF-FW instrument was developed to measure support for parenting, dependent children and family relationships in order to promote child development and mental health in adult psychiatry. A 133-item PCF-FW questionnaire was developed; the content validity, construct validity and reliability of the instrument were ensured by expert review, pilot test and internal consistency. The final instrument was distributed to all nurses (n= 608), including registered nurses (n= 373) and practical mental health nurses (n= 235), working in 45 adult psychiatric units in five university hospitals in Finland. Some 51% of all nurses responded. Correlation variables in each subscale varied between 0.1 and 0.8. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were 0.55-0.95 in each subscale, demonstrating the moderate to excellent internal consistency of the instrument. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the entire instrument was 0.94. In spite of some caveats, such as possible response biases, the present study suggests that the PCF-FW instrument is a valid and reliable tool for studying preventive child-focused family working in adult psychiatry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing Science, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland. teija.korhonen@uku.fi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Korhonen
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vehviläinen-Julkunen
authors.forename: A-M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Pietilä
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kattainen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005190:Family; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000451:nursing; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000379:methods*; D035781:Siblings; D012944:Social Support