Validation of the Italian Version of the Parental Attitude Scale

Background: This study focused on the validation of the Italian version of the Parental Attitude Scale (PAD). This is a 46-item questionnaire that was developed to measure parental attitudes on the basis of three dimensions: Pleasure-Displeasure, Arousal-Non arousal, Dominance-Submissiveness. Methods: 495 parents (241 males; mean age= 40.6±5.7 years) participated in the study. Dimensionality was explored using Principal Component Analysis. Findings: The three-factor solution accounted for 19.98% of the variance, and yielded poor indices for about one-third of the items. Moreover, it was largely inconsistent with the original proposed structure and difficult to interpret, suggesting the removal of 17 items. A four-factor solution for the resulting 29-item version was identified (Parenting Pleasure, Parenting Load, Parental Permissiveness, Educational Rules), explaining 30.63% of the variance. Discussion: The 29-item version of the PAD seems a more psychometrically sound measure than the original 46-item version. However, more studies are needed to achieve a comprehensive investigation of its psychometric characteristics in Italian contexts.