French validation of the child-father and child-mother attachment perceptions security scale (Kerns, Klepac, & Cole, 1996)

Introduction. - Although most researchers recognize the importance of parent-child relationships in child development and well-being, currently few methods designed to assess attachment quality after age 6 and before adolescence are validated in French. Objective. - The objective of this study was to validate the French adaptation of the security scale (mother and father forms). Method. - Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on the data collected with 210 children aged between 8 and 12 years old. Internal consistency, test-retest fidelity, and convergent validity of the scale were tested using Cronbach alphas and correlation analyses. Results. - Although 5 of the 15 items were deleted, results confirmed the unidimensional structure of the scale, and revealed its good psychometric properties. Discussion. - This instrument should be very useful for both researchers and practitioners who want to have a first insight on the quality of children's attachment relationships during middle childhood. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.