Scale of remembered relationship with parents : Evaluation of psychometric properties on university students

The aim of this study is to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Remembered Relationships with Parents (RRP10) for Turkish university students. 373 students studying at Lefke European University participated in this research. The gender distribution of the subjects is 52.8% (n=197) for female and 47.2% (n=176) for male students. The reliability of RRP10 was assessed by internal consistency and testretest reliability statistics. The validity of the scale was assessed by confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis and correlations between subscales and item analyses were examined. In addition, the correlation between RRP and Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) was assessed by Pearson correlation coefficient method in order to see the criterion based validity. The internal consistency, Cronbach alpha and test-retest reliability coefficient of the scale were calculated. In order to assess the distinctive validity of the scale, a discriminant analysis was performed to determine whether the RRP10 scores of the participants who received under the cut-off score (≥10) is different than the RRP10 scores of the participants who received over the cut-off score according to the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). As a result of the factor analysis, a two-factor structure similar to the original RRP10 study was found out. No correlation was observed between RRP10 Alienation and PBI Care subscales while highly significant criterion-relationship validity was observed between RRP10 Control and PBI Control subscales and a distinctive validity was observed in the statistical assessment of RRP10 and BDI. RRP10 test-retest coefficients and internal consistency coefficients show findings on the reliability of the scale. The psychometric properties of RRP10 are found to be satisfactory and could be used to assess remembered relationships with parents. RRP10 will be valuable in establishing initiatives or psycho-educative programs in order to regulate the mother-father and child relationships.


Introduction
Research on animals and human beings showed that especially some types of parenting styles are the main reasons for certain kinds of adulthood psychopathologies (Denollet, Smolderen, van den Broek & Pedersen, 2007).The quality of parental relationship has an important impact on life span development (Datta, Marcoen & Poortinga, 2005).The individuals who have not received enough attention from the parents particularly have higher risks of being depressive through their life.It has been suggested that remembered dysfunctional parental attitudes are related with depression and anxiety disorders in particular (Damen, Versteeg, van Helmondt, de Jaegere, van Geuns, Meine, & Pedersen, 2014;Erozkan, 2009, Kuzgun & Eldeleklioglu, 2005;Schiffrin, Liss, Miles-McLean, Geary, Erchull & Tashner, 2014).Remembered dysfunctional parental attitudes affect females more than males, and on the other hand, remembered parental alienation and parental over-control increase the depression and anxiety levels for male subjects (Kouzoupis, Lyrakos, Kokras, Panagiotarakou, Syrigos, & Papadimitriou, 2012;Gate, Watkins, Simmons, Byrne, Schwartz, Whittle, ... & Allen, 2013;Barton & Kirtley, 2012).Insufficient care given by parents as well as other negative childhood experiences cause physical and mental disorders in adulthood.Tremendous amount of literature showed that insufficient parental care and attention causes depression at any stage of life (Van den Broek, Smolderen, Pedersen & Denollet, 2010).Horney mentioned that children who are raised by families that have rejecting parenting styles will grow with feelings of loneliness and mistrust which lead to the fear of rejection and criticisms that would cause touchiness, hopelessness and depression (Horney, 1945).On the other hand, Kuzgun and Eldeleklioglu emphasize that adolescents who are raised in families that possess authoritarian parenting styles will obey the authority, they will show impairment in social contact despite their success, and they will be vulnerable towards can depression, drug dependency and guilt feelings (Kuzgun & Eldeleklioglu, 2005).With this regard, it is stated that the parenting styles are important for internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors of children and adolescents.Psychological control problems are related with internalization and cause depression and anxiety for adolescents (Schiffrin et al., 2014;Aunola & Nurmi, 2005).Cognitive predisposition to depression is affected by environmental inputs.Parental attitudes serve as very important inputs for children and they produce schemas about themselves as well as their environments with these inputs (Lumley, Dozois, Hennig & Marsh, 2012).Psychological control is more harmful than behavioral control because an initiative exists with psychological control so as to control the psychological development of children.At this point, criticisms and lack of warmth is a rejecting situation which produces internal conflict leading towards depression and anxiety in children (Scanlon & Epkins, 2013).Kuzucu and Ozdemir found out that depression and anxiety levels will decrease while parental involvement increases (Kuzucu & Ozdemir, 2013).Moreover, it is more frequently observed that adolescents who perceive lower levels of parental support suffer from higher levels of depression (Ozbarani, Tamar, Yuncu, Bildik, Demiral & Erermis, 2009).
Remembered Relationships with Parents Scale (RRP10) is a scale developed by Denollet et al which can be easily used in non-psychiatric populations as well as in epidemiological studies.RRP10 is a retrospective self-evaluation scale of remembered relationship with parents together with the emphasis of motherhood and fatherhood.RRP10 consists of two sub-scales which are Alienation and Control.The alienation sub-scale measures the memories of getting distant and alienated from parents in the course of development.Control sub-scale measures the memories of controlling parents.Alienation scale was more internally focused measuring the child's feelings towards parents, and control scale was more externally focused measuring the child's perceptions about the behaviors of parents.High scores taken from this two subscales showed that the remembered relationships with parents were weak.RRP10 can be scored individually for each parent and Denollet et al. reported that if 'my mother or my father' is replaced with 'my parents' it is possible that the remembered relationships of both parents can be assessed (Denollet, Smolderen & Van den Broek, 2007).
In the Turkish language, many scales which measure the parental attitudes are available but no scale which measures the remembered relationships and increases the tendency towards depression with parents exists.On the other hand, RRP10 can be used in non-psychiatric populations for epidemiological research.Measurement of the remembered relationship with parents by RRP10 as 10 items renders the scale economic in terms of time.The aim of this study is to translate RRP10 into Turkish and to conduct the reliability and validity studies upon Turkish University Students.

Participants
Adaptation study was conducted on 373 undergraduate students in European University of Lefke.After the necessary permissions were taken, the questionnaire was distributed and collected immediately from students who were volunteers to take part in the research.The sample of the study was formed by random sampling method.The distributions of sociodemographical variables of the sample were shown in Table 1.The mean age of the subjects and their siblings was calculated as 21.38±3.39and 3.42±2, 27 respectively.13.4% (n= 50) of the participants were TRNC citizens and 86.6% (n= 323) of the participants were TR citizens.52.8% (n= 197) of the subjects were female and 47.2% (n=176) were male.

Translation Study
In order to assess the content validity of the scale, the scale was translated from English into Turkish, and backward translation was performed by two English Language and Literature lecturer after taking an expert opinion.No meaning loss or conflicted items were found during forward and backward translations.As the intelligibility and cultural appropriateness of the scale was shown by these evaluations, the content validity of the scale was demonstrated as well.

Data Collectıon Tools
Remembered Relationships with Parents Scale (RRP10): RRP10 is a self-evaluation scale developed by Denollet et al. which measures remembered relationship with parents retrospectively with the emphasis of motherhood and fatherhood.Participants were asked to answer questions about their remembered memories about their parents during their course of development through Likert type questions.RRP10 consists of 10 questions and two sub-scales which were formed 5 questions each.Alienation scale measures the memories of getting distant and alienated from parents in the course of development.Control sub-scale measures the memories of controlling parents.Alienation scale was more internally focused measuring the child's feelings towards parents and control scale was more externally focused measuring the child's perceptions about the behaviors of parents.Higher scores taken from this two subscales showed that the remembered relationships with parents was weak.RRP10 can be scored individually for each parent and Denollet et al. reported that if 'my mother or my father' was replaced with 'my parents', it would be possible that remembered relationships with both parents can be assessed (Denollet, Smolderen & Van den Broek, 2007).
Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI): PBI was developed by Parker et al. and adapted to Turkish language by Kapcı and Kucuker.PBI assesses the past relationship patterns with parents with respect to individual perception.The scale basically consists of two factors which are care and overprotection.PBI consists of 25 items which are 12 care items and 13 overprotection items.Higher scores on care subscale indicate accepting and understanding parents and lower scores indicate cold and rejecting parenting style perception.13 items are available in the overprotection sub-scale, high scores indicate overprotective or disallowing autonomy parenting style perception.The measure is retrospective and subjects complete the measure how they remember their parents during their first 16 years.The measure is to be completed for both mothers and fathers separately on Likert type questions (Kapcı & Kucuker, 2006).
Beck Depression Inventory (BDI): It is developed by Beck et al. and was adapted into Turkish language by Hisli.It was a self-rating scale that consists of 21 questions.The reliability and validity study was conducted by Tegin on university students and correlation coefficients was found as r= .78 and r= .65 in the study performed by split halves and test-re-test methods (Hisli, 1988;Hisli, 1989).
Socio-Demographic Information Form: Demographic information form was used by researchers in order to get information about the age, gender, parental conditions, sibling numbers and such variables of the participants.

Statistical Analysis
Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS 20.0 and Lisrel in order to evaluate the obtained data.The validity of the RRP10 was assessed by Principal Component Analysis and Discriminant analysis, and correlation among sub-scales and item analyses were investigated.In addition, criterion related validity between RRP10 and PBI was calculated with Pearson Correlation coefficient.The internal consistency of the RRP10 was calculated with Cornbach's Alpha coefficient and test re-test reliability was performed.Discriminant analysis was performed in order to determine whether any differences exist between the participants with cut off scores below 10 ( ≥10) and the participants with high cut off scores on RRP10 according to Beck Depression Inventory.20

Descriptive Findings Related to Participants
The means scores of RRP10 according to participants' gender were shown in Table 2.According to those findings, with regardless of gender, participants remembered more alienation towards their fathers.In the control subscale, for both sexes remembered their mothers as more controlling figure in their retrospective life.

Findings on the Reliability of RRP10
Internal Consistency of the Scale: In order to calculate the internal consistency of the scale, the Cornbach's Alpha values and item to total score correlation coefficients were calculated.The calculated item to total score correlation coefficients for each sub-scale were as follows: Alienation Father: The calculated item to total score correlation coefficient change between the range of -0.11 -0.81.With this respect, it is seen that the first items correlation coefficient was under the accepted value which was 0.20.(Buyukozturk, 2007).The Cornbach's Alpha coefficient of Alienation Father Scale was calculated as 0.71.
Control Father: The calculated item to total score correlation coefficient change between the range of 0.59 -0.76.The Cornbach's Alpha coefficient of Control Father Scale was calculated as 0.83.
Alienation Mother: The calculated item to total score correlation coefficient change between the range of -0.31 -0.76.With this respect, it is seen that the first items correlation coefficient was under the accepted value which was 0.20.20 The Cornbach's Alpha coefficient of Alienation Mother Scale was calculated as 0.65.
Control Mother: The calculated item to total score correlation coefficient change between the range of 0.62 -0.77.The Cornbach's Alpha coefficient of Control Mother Scale was calculated as 0.83.
In addition, according to the calculation of total scores of mother and father scales, Cornbach's Alpha coefficient was calculated as 0.73 for Mother and as 0.77 for Father.
Test Re-Test Reliability: In order to evaluate test re-test reliability of RRP10, the same group of participants was retested after two weeks.As a result of the performed analyses, the statistical analysis the correlation coefficients between two applications was found as r= 0.768 (p=0.000,p<0.01) for Mother and as r=0.745 (p=0.000,p<0.01) for Father.Moreover, the correlation coefficients for two applications were calculated for two sub-scales separately for mother and father.According to these calculations, Alienation Father correlation coefficient was found as r=0.725 (p=0.000,p<0.05),Control Father correlation coefficient was calculated as r= 0.728 (p=0.000.p<0.05).Alienation mother sub-scales correlation coefficients was calculated as r= 0.697(p=0.000,p<0.05) and Control Mother correlation coefficient was calculated as r= 0.725 (p=0.000,p<0.05).

Findings on the Validity of RRP10
Validity of the RRP10 was examined by explanatory factor analysis.Principle Component Analysis was applied on the correlation matrix obtained from RRP10 items and factors which have Eigenvalue over 1 are determined.Two factor structure was obtained for both mother and father scales as a result of continuing the analysis with the Varimax rotation as one of the orthogonal rotation methods.Two factors with an Eigenvalue over 1 are determined related to the RRP10 father form.These two factors explain the 55% of the variance and explain 53% of the mother variance.In the original scale, RRP10 items number 1,2,4,7 and 8 are in Alienation sub-scale for both mother and father scales and items number 3,5,6,9, and 10 are in the Control sub-scale for both mother and father scales.In this study, while the mother scale showed the same factor distributions in the original scale (Table 3.), only item number 6 in the father form shifted towards alienation sub-scale (Table 4.).In order to evaluate the findings obtained from the discriminant factor analysis for RRP10, confirmatory factor analysis was performed.Many statistical analysis methods exist to evaluate the model fit but usually X2, X2 /df, RMSEA, NNFI, CFI, GFI coefficients are calculated (Sumer, 2000;Buyukozturk, Akgun, Ozkahvecioglu, & Demirel, 2004;Voltan & Ogretmen, 2007;Atılgan, Sackes, Yurdagul & Cirak, 2007;Serin & Saygili, 2010).Two factor model evaluated according to the results taken from the Discriminant Factor Analysis seems to be appropriate for the suggested criteria for fit indices.The values obtained when the RRP10 mother scale analyzed as a result of Confirmatory Factor Analysis were X2 =20.93, df=7, X2 /df=2.99,RMSEA=0.073,NNFI=0.911,CFI=0.986,GFI=0.989.The values obtained when the RRP10 father scale analyzed as a result of Confirmatory Factor Analysis were X2 =5.08, df = 3, X2 /df=1.69,RMSEA=0.043,NNFI = 0.972, CFI = 0.998, GFI = 0.997.
For the evaluation of criterion related validity of RRP10, the correlation between PBI subscales and RRP10 sub-scales.The correlation coefficient between PBI father-care and RRP10 Alienation father was calculated as (r= -0.029, p>0.05), and the correlation coefficient between PBI mother-care and RRP10 alienation mother was calculated as (r= 0.018, p>0.05).There was no significant correlation between them.Besides, PBI Father-control and RRP10 father control correlation coefficients were calculated as (r= 0.393, p: 0.000, p<0.001), the correlation coefficient between PBI Mother Control and RRP10 Mother Control was calculated as (r= 0.413, p: 0.000, p<0.001).
With the aim of evaluating the construct validity of RRP10, BDI was applied to the participants to measure the degree of depression.According to the performed studies, the cut off scores equal or below 10 show no signs of depression (Hisli, 1988).In this study as in the original study the cut of score is taken as ≥10.Discriminant (Function) Analysis was performed in order to evaluate the differences between cut off scores of BDI below (1-10) and above (11 and higher).Discriminant analysis was performed in order to discriminate differences between previously determined groups on the basis of scores (Cokluk, Sekercioglu & Buyukozturk, 2012).
According to the group statistics of the statistical process, Group 1 (below cut off score) Alienation Father, Alienation Mother, Control Father and Control Mother mean scores are = 7.67, = 7.20, = 9.55 and =11.20 respectively.For Group 2 ( cut off score 11 and higher) Alienation Father, Alienation Mother, Control Father and Control Mother mean scores are = 9.02, = 8.30, = 10.37 and =12.05 respectively.As seen above, participants with BDI scores over cut off score have higher RRP10 score averages.
It has been seen that only one function was produced and the Eigenvalue of this function was 0.035.The canonic correlation coefficient of this function was 0.183.According to the Wilks' Lambda statistics, chi-square value was significant (X2= 12.62, p=0.013, p<0.05).The evaluations of significance levels of each independent variable are as follows.Alienation Father (F(1-371)=0.974,p=0.002, p<0.001),Alienation Mother ( F(1-371) = 0.980, p=0.006, p<0.001),Control Father (F(1-371) = 0.995, p=0.154, p<0.001) and Control Mother (F(1-371) = 0.994, p=0.151, p<0.001).These findings showed significant differences in Alienation sub-scales unlike Control sub-scales.This finding carries similarities as in the original study.Considering standardized coefficients related to the discriminant function, the most distinctive independent variables were Alienation Father (0.647) and Alienation Mother (0.446).Considering construct matrices coefficients showed that the most distinctive independent variables that give the highest correlation were Alienation Father (0.875) and Alienation Mother (0.764).Control Father (0.401) and Control Mother (0.398) are least distinctive in analysis.According to the findings on classification results, total true classification percentage is 60%.

Discussion
This study analyzed the psychometric properties of the scale called Remembered Relationship with Parents (RRP10) developed by Denollet et al. (2007) on Turkish university students.In order to evaluate the reliability of the scale referred to as Remembered Relationship with Parents Scale (RRPS), internal consistency coefficients and test-retest stability coefficients were calculated.Exploratory factor analysis was carried out in order to evaluate the structural validity of the scale and confirmatory factor analysis was performed so as to test the accuracy of the resulting factors.In order to determine the criterion validity of the scale, Discriminant (Function) Analysis was performed on the basis of the cutoff scores of the Beck Depression Inventory with the purpose of examining the correlation and distinguishing validity with the Relationship with Parents Scale.
The reliability of the scale has been examined by calculating the coefficients of test-retest stability and internal consistency.Test-retest reliability is obtained by applying the same group twice at regular intervals.The alignment between the correlation coefficients among the obtained results indicates the stability of the scale in time (Buyukozturk, 2007).All scales and subscales for the mother and father forms of Relationship with Parents Scale have been proven by the correlation coefficients of the test scores as Mother r = 0.768, Father r = 0.745, Alienation Mother r = 0.697, Control Mother r = 0.725, Alienation Father r = 0.725 and Control Father r = 0.728 respectively which are determined to show stability.In addition to this, Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient values were calculated.It has been shown that the scale is reliable as the reliability coefficient calculated for a psychological test is over 0.70 (Buyukozturk, 2007).Internal consistency coefficients were calculated for Mother as 0.73, for Father as 0.77, for Alienation Father as 0.71, for Alienation Mother as 0.65, for Control Father as 0.83 and for Control Mother as 0.83.The results obtained seem to support the reliability of the RRP.The correlation coefficients of the parent forms obtained from the "I was very close to my Mother/Father" score were identified as -0.11 and -0.31 respectively.Seltmann and Wright (2013) discusses the concerns on the drawbacks of the mothers who are victims of sexual abuse in forming close relationship with their children that the formed relationships may result in sexual abuse (Seltmann & Wright, 2013).It has been considered that this case can take place as the word 'closeness' connotes not only the emotional closeness but also sexuality.
The factor analysis regarding the structural validity of RRP and the findings from the Confirmatory Factor Analysis and reliability studies demonstrate that the scale is reliable.It is observed that the original scale is formed of two factors which are alienation and control.The forms regarding the mother and the father are separately evaluated in the original study.(Denollet, Smolderen & Van den Broek, 2007) The RRP10 parent forms are separately evaluated in this study as well.A two-factor structure was identified in parent forms in line with the original study.The "My dad was worried that I would not be able to fend myself" item which was in the control side of the original scale shifted to the alienation subscale in the father form in this study.While the control behaviors of the parents form a part of overprotective parenthood pattern in the western culture, they appear as a part of parental behavior pattern in the Turkish culture (Kapcı & Kucuker, 2006).By having the worries that mothers experience instead of fathers in the Turkish culture asked in the above-mentioned question, it is considered that this item that may be shifted to the alienation subscale can be evaluated as the original finding of the study.
Confirmatory factor analysis was performed in order to evaluate the findings obtained from exploratory factor analysis.It has been demonstrated that the general factor structure is compatible as the chi-square test from the confirmatory factor analysis was not significant, the values of CFI, NNFI, NFI, GFI, AGFI were over 0.90, X2 /df ratio was 3 or less and the level of significance of RMSEA was 0.05 (Serin, Serim & Saygili, 2010).The results obtained when the two-factor structure of RRP10 Mother form as a result of performed Confirmatory Factor Analysis were found as X2 = 20.93,df = 7, X2 /df= 2.99, RMSEA = 0.073, NNFI = 0.911, CFI = 0.986, GFI = 0.989.It has been identified that the values obtained as a result of the statistical analysis performed for the RRP10 Father form were X2 = 5.08, df = 3, X2 /df= 1.69, RMSEA = 0.043, NNFI = 0.972, CFI = 0.998, GFI = 0.997.These values suggest that the data compatibility of the model is satisfactory.
The correlation between the subscales of RRP10 and PBI were statistically analyzed in order to assess the criterion validity of RRP10.According to this, no significant relationship was detected between the alienation subscales of RRP10 (mother and father) and attention subscales of PBI (mother and father).The reason of identifying no significant relationship as an expected result is that PBI attention scale reflects the parent relationships perceived as warm, understanding and accepting (Ozbaran et al, 2009).RRP10 Alienation subscale assesses the alienation and disaffection memories during the alienation and growth.BDI that determines the existence and the violence, if any, of the depression was applied in order to determine the structural validity of the scale; and discriminant (function) analysis was performed with the aim of evaluating whether the scores of the participants who received under the cut-off score (1-10) and the participants who received over the cut-off score (11 and over) according to BDI.Discriminant analysis is used in differentiating pre-defined groups on the basis of certain score (Hisli, 1988;Cokluk, Sekercioglu & Buyukozturk, 2012).Participants with BDI score over the BDI cut-off score have high RRP10 score averages.When the significance levels of each independent variable are analyzed, the values were found as Alienation Father (F(1-371)=0.974,p=0.002, p<0.001),Alienation Mother (F(1-371) = 0.980, p=0.006, p<0.001),Control Father (F(1-371)=0.995,p=0.154, p<0.001) and Control Mother (F(1-371) = 0.994, p=0.151, p<0.001).While significant differences were observed in the alienation subscales of the score, no differences were observed in the control subscales.This finding also carries similarities with the original study findings (Denollet, Smolderen & Van den Broek, 2007).These findings are considered to be found as the study was carried out on a normal population rather than a group diagnosed with depression.It has been revealed in many studies that the remembered relationship with parents play an important role in depressive findings and the risk of depression is high in cases that the remembered relationship is inadequate or bad (Denollet, Smolderen & Van den Broek, 2007;Damen et al., 2014;Erozkan, 2009;Kuzgun & Eldeleklioglu, 2005;Schiffrin et al, 2014;Van den Broek, Smolderen, Pedersen & Denollet, 2010).
As stated in the introduction, it is known that the attitude of the parents plays an important role in the development of adult psychopathology.Remembered dysfunctional attitudes of parents are particularly risk factors for depression and anxiety disorders (Demen et al., 2014, Erozkan, 2009;Kuzgun & Eldeleklioglu, 2005;Schiffrin et al, 2014).Universal or culture-specific remembered relationship with parents pattern and its possible contribution to mental disorders can be evaluated with different clinical studies or studies to be performed in groups under risk by using RRP10 in countries where Turkish is used.As this scale can be easily used in the population that does not show any psychopathology, initiatives and psycho-educational programs can be created in order to arrange the impact of parental attitudes on children and the relationship between parents and children.