Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Psy-Flex Among Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Researchers created a Chinese version of a questionnaire that measures how well parents can adapt their thinking and cope with challenges when raising a child with autism. They tested it with 248 Chinese parents and found it works reliably. The questionnaire can help identify parents who might need extra support with stress and coping strategies.

This study validated a Chinese version of the Psy-Flex scale, which measures psychological flexibility in parents of children with autism spectrum disorder. The research involved translation, expert review, and testing with 248 Chinese parents. The Chinese version (Psy-Flex-C) demonstrated strong psychometric properties including good internal consistency (α = 0.84), test-retest reliability (κ = 0.88), and construct validity through confirmatory factor analysis. The scale showed concurrent validity with another psychological flexibility measure and successfully differentiated between parents with high versus low parenting stress.

This provides researchers and clinicians with a reliable tool to assess psychological flexibility in Chinese-speaking autism parents.

The validated Chinese Psy-Flex provides clinicians with a reliable tool to assess psychological flexibility in Chinese-speaking autism parents. This can inform targeted interventions and support planning, particularly for identifying parents experiencing high stress who may benefit from acceptance-based therapies.

Study limited to Chinese-speaking parents, requiring validation in other cultural contexts. Cross-sectional design prevents assessment of sensitivity to change over time. Sample characteristics and recruitment methods not fully detailed in the abstract.

This research aimed to translate the original English version of the Psy-Flex, a scale of psychological flexibility, into Chinese and to test its psychometric properties among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Two phases were conducted: (1) translation from English to Chinese (Psy-Flex-C), followed by a semantic equivalence evaluation between two versions, a pre-test, and an evaluation of the Psy-Flex-C in terms of face validity with 20 parents of autistic children, and content validity of the Psy-Flex-C with eight experts. (2) A cross-sectional study with 248 parents of autistic children was conducted for validation, and a subgroup of 50 participants was randomly selected to assess the test-retest reliability at a 2-week interval. The Psy-Flex-C showed satisfactory semantic equivalence with the original version and demonstrated adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.84) and test-retest stability (weighted kappa statistic = 0.88). Concurrent validity was supported by a moderate correlation between the Psy-Flex-C and the Comprehensive Assessment of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Processes (Pearson's r = 0.54, p < 0.01).

The Psy-Flex-C showed a significant mean score difference between parents with high and low parenting stress (t = 5.43, p < 0.001). Similar to the original scale, confirmatory factor analysis showed the best fitting one-factor structure of the Psy-Flex-C (X/df = 1.62, p = 0.13, RMSEA = 0.05, GFI = 0.99, CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.98, SRMR = 0.023). The Psy-Flex-C can be a reliable and valid instrument to self-report psychological flexibility in parents of children with ASD. Future research is recommended to test the Psy-Flex-C using diverse samples from different cultures and contexts to enhance its generalizability.