Construct-concurrent validity and reliability of the European Child Environment Questionnaire (ECEQ) in a sample of Turkish children with cerebral palsy

Purpose To investigate the construct-concurrent validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the European Child Environment Questionnaire (ECEQ-T) in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Methods Mean age 9.53 +/- 4.45 years 306 children with CP and their parents participated in the study. While construct validity was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis, concurrent validity was investigated using the correlation between ECEQ-T and Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) with Spearman's correlation analysis. For test-retest reliability, ECEQ-T was administered twice to 65 parents with an interval of two weeks. Cronbach's alpha (alpha) and Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) were used for reliability. Results Construct validity (RMSEA > 0.080; GFI >= 0.90) and concurrent validity (r: -0.533 to -0.293;p < 0.05) were confirmed as acceptable. Eight items were dropped out as they did not fit the model and finally ECEQ-T contains 54 items in three domains. High Cronbach's alpha and ICC values were found (Cronbach alpha(PE): 0.960/ICCPE: 0.959, Cronbach alpha(SS): 0.955/ICCSS: 0.954), Cronbach alpha(A): 0.822/ICCA: 0.802, Cronbach alpha(T): 0.957/ICCT: 0.955). Conclusion ECEQ-T has demonstrated good psychometric properties and can be used as a reliable and valid measure to assess environmental factors. We believe that ECEQ-T is a useful and detailed questionnaire to determine barriers-facilitators for increasing activity and participation in Turkish children with CP.