Family focused intervention scale: Validation study in a Portuguese sample

Abstract

In this paper we present an adaptation of the Family Focused Intervention Scale (Mahoney, O’Sullivan & Dennenbaum, 1990a). The scale was completed by 193 mothers of handicapped and at-risk children and 128 professionals that supported them in early intervention programmes. All the participants were from the Lisbon county and the professionals were members of various teams. Mothers and professionals completed the scale twice: first indicating the services that were actually being provided and the second time indicating the degree of importance attributed to each service. A factorial analysis of the responses indicated that the items assessed two independent factors: child focused services and family focused services. The item belonging to each sub-scale remained constant when considering the responses of all the participants or when suing only mother’s or professionals’ responses. Cronbach Alpha indicated that each of the sub-scales was reliable for the services actually being provided and for the degree of importance attributed to each service.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17575/rpsicol.v17i1.444