The development and validation of the attitude toward father scale. A tool for assessing the father's role in children's behavior problems.

Numerous measures assess how parental influences may relate to children's development of psychological difficulties. The majority of such measures focuses specifically on the mother-child relationship or assume both parents contribute equally and similarly to their children's psychological well-being. Previous research has largely ignored the need to assess the father-child relationship when examining parental influences on behavior problems. The goal of the present study was to develop and validate a self-report questionnaire to assess the father-child relationship. The Attitude Toward Father Scale was developed and validated using three independent samples of college undergraduates. The scale, which includes three subscales, was shown to have good psychometric properties. It was found effective in examining associations between father-child relationship scores and scores on adjustment measures. Findings showed total scale and subscale scores associated with measures of stress, alcoholism, hostility, depression, anxiety, and paranoia. Implications of findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.