Cross-Cultural adaptation of the General Functioning Scale of the Family

OBJECTIVE: To describe the process of cross-cultural adaptation of the General Functioning Scale of the Family, a subscale of the McMaster Family Assessment Device, for the Brazilian population. METHODS: The General Functioning Scale of the Family was translated into Portuguese and administered to 500 guardians of children in the second grade of elementary school in public schools of Sao Goncalo, Rio de Janeiro, Southeastern Brazil. The types of equivalences investigated were: conceptual and of items, semantic, operational, and measurement. The study involved discussions with experts, translations and back-translations of the instrument, and psychometric assessment. Reliability and validity studies were carried out by internal consistency testing (Cronbach's alpha), Guttman split-half correlation model, Pearson correlation coefficient, and confirmatory factor analysis. Associations between General Functioning of the Family and variables theoretically associated with the theme (father's or mother's drunkenness and violence between parents) were estimated by odds ratio. RESULTS: Semantic equivalence was between 90.0% and 100%. Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.79 to 0.81, indicating good internal consistency of the instrument. Pearson correlation coefficient ranged between 0.303 and 0.549. Statistical association was found between the general functioning of the family score and the theoretically related variables, as well as good fit quality of the confirmatory analysis model. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate the feasibility of administering the instrument to the Brazilian population, as it is easy to understand and a good measurement of the construct of interest.