Development of an Indigenous Psychological Flexibility Scale (PFS) for Parents of Children with ASD

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to develop an indigenous Psychological Flexibility Scale in Urdu for parents of children with ASD, as well as to establish the psychometric properties of the indigenous Psychological Flexibility Scales. The study had two phases: In Phase 1, an indigenous Psychological Flexibility Scale was developed, and in Phase 2, the scale's psychometric qualities were established. Items were generated through semi-structured interviews with parents of children with ASD. After expert evaluation, 48 items were pilot tested on 30 parents. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 400 participants for the field investigation. The EFA was limited to a five-factor structure with 39 components. A 32-item scale with a Cronbach alpha of 0.96 was produced by the CFA. Test-retest reliability, divergent validity, and convergent validity results show that the scale is a valid and reliable way to measure psychological flexibility in parents of children with ASD. The findings have implications for clinical and counselling practice.