Providing Psychometric Support for the READI-SF among Clinic-Referred Latino Families

Abstract

Given the high prevalence of child mental health problems and their long-lasting negative consequences if left untreated, it is important to investigate factors that affect family engagement in psychological intervention services (Costello, Copeland, & Angold, 2011; López-Romero, Romero, & Andershed, 2015; Nock & Photos, 2006). Specifically, Latino families have been shown to experience greater mental health disparities and have unique factors that affect parental engagement (Flores, 2010; Kapke & Gerdes, 2016). Expanded from the Transtheoretical Stages of Change Model (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1982), the concept of parental readiness to engage in treatment is an understudied attitudinal factor that influences parent engagement in mental health services (de Haan et al., 2013; Staudt, 2007; Wade & Andrade, 2015). Limited measures are available to assess this construct (Nock & Photos, 2006; Wade & Andrade, 2015); however, the Readiness, Efficacy, Attributions, Defensiveness, and Importance Scale (READI) is one scale developed to evaluate factors related to parental motivation and readiness for treatment (Brestan, Ondersma, Simpson, & Gurwitch, 1999b). Recently, preliminary evidence of reliability and validity for a short version of the READI (READI-SF) was provided within a community sample of African American families (Proctor, 2016). Still, research with diverse families who are seeking treatment is needed to further validate this measure and to reach populations most at risk for disengagement. The current project aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the READI-SF among English- and Spanish-speaking Latino families, including its reliability, factor structure, and convergent and predictive validity. Participants were 100 parents who sought Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) services from a community mental health center in Washington D.C. Results supported a two-factor structure for the READI-SF using 13 of the original 17 items, with some invariance between parents who completed the English or Spanish version. These two scales demonstrated adequate internal consistency, measuring parent readiness for change and perceived importance of seeking treatment. Parent ratings on the READI-SF scales were shown to be related to parent-reported child behavior problems, single parenthood, and mastery of therapy skills, providing some evidence for convergent and predictive validity. Limitations and future directions for the current project were discussed.