Building a composite factorial score for the assessment of quality of parent-child relationships in adolescence

The quality of parent-child relationships has important implications for adolescent development and well-being. However, whereas numerous measures of specific dimensions contributing to quality of parent-child relationships are available, scales that provide a global assessment of this content are scarce. Consequently, the assessment of quality of parent-child relationships poses a challenge to the researcher, especially when the need exists to consider its main aspects but long instruments can not be used due to diverse circumstances. This paper presents a composite factorial score on quality of parent-child relationships developed from four short measures of affection, communication, parental knowledge and family satisfaction that can contribute to solving some of those difficulties. This composite score can be a useful tool to assess quality of parent-child relationships, especially for studies devoted to the study of the relationships between experiences within the family and the adolescent's well-being.