Validation Study of the Portuguese Version of the Walsh Family Resilience Questionnaire

Authors:
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Considering the multiple and increasing challenges that our contemporary society has been exposed to, examining family resilience is highly relevant. The Walsh Family Resilience Questionnaire (WFRQ) is a 32‐item self‐report measure developed to assess family resilience, and it has been widely used in several contexts of adversity across different countries. The present study aimed to develop the Portuguese version of the WFRQ (WFRQ‐PT) and examine its factor structure and psychometric properties. A total of 1535 subjects (72.2% female) aged between 18 and 83 (M = 34.77; SD = 14.07) participated in this study during 2020 and 2021. Two different three‐factor structures were examined: one in line with the theoretical dimensions of Walsh's model, and an alternative structure, in which the key‐family process making meaning of adversity emerged as an independent factor. CFA results indicated that the alternative structure showed a better goodness‐of‐fit than the theoretical structure. Support was found for the use of a 30‐item WFRQ‐PT, presenting good internal consistency for both the total scale and its subscales. Test–retest results from a sub‐sample of 40 participants attested to the temporal stability of the measure. Strong positive associations were found between the communication and family satisfaction subscales of the FACES IV and the WFRQ‐PT dimensions (0.68 < r < 0.75), supporting its convergent validity. In sum, the WFRQ‐PT is a valid and reliable instrument, with the potential to serve as a key tool for both research on family resilience and clinical practice in Portugal.

This publication has 33 references indexed in Scilit: