Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of the Psychological Adaptation Scale

Introduction: Adaptation to critical situations and psychological trauma is considered as one of the issues which has attracted a lot of attention. Thus, designing a reliable and valid scale for the studies conducted in Iran is inevitable. The present study aimed to design the Persian version of the Psychological Adaptation Scale and evaluate its psychometric feature. Method: The sample included 233 parents having children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Tehran who were selected based on convenience sampling method. The Persian version of the Psychological Adaptation Scale was performed after translating, back-translating and revising, and was given to the subjects along with the Resilience and Depression, Anxiety, Stress questionnaires. The construct validity of the scale was investigated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and convergent and divergent validity were evaluated by using Pearson correlation. Regarding the reliability, Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability and coefficient theta were used. Results: The results of exploratory factor analysis indicated three factors of experience, deliberation and social integration and the results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated good fitness of the model. In addition, significant correlations were observed between the obtained factors and the Resilience and Depression, Anxiety, Stress scales, which confirm the convergent and divergent validity of the Psychological Adaption Scale. The reliability of the scale was calculated by using the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.95 for the whole scale, and 0.86-0.94 for its factors. Further, it ranged 0.87 to 0.93 for the composite reliability of the factors and 0.94 for coefficient theta for the whole scale. Conclusion: In general, the results of this study indicated that the Persian version of Psychological Adaptation Scale includes three factors, which has appropriate reliability and validity for application in psychological studies conducted for Iranian samples.