ABSTRACT
Objectives
The Inventory of Family Feelings (IFF) serves as a measure for gauging emotional proximity, not solely to specific family members, but also to family members across various levels of intimacy. The principal aim of this study is to investigate the validity and reliability of the Turkish adaptation of the IFF.
Materials and Methods
Within the context of this research, 394 university students engaged in evaluating their feelings toward their mothers and fathers separately, utilizing an online questionnaire. To ascertain the scale’s criterion validity, the Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory-II and the Beck Depression Inventory were employed.
Results
The results revealed a two-factor solution of the IFF scale, reflecting an individual’s subjective sentiments directed at other family members (Subjective Feelings Scale) and the perceived emotional proximity from other family members (Perceived Feelings Scale), each loading onto different factors. Analyses of both the total scores and the subscales of the IFF underscored the scale’s robust validity and reliability. Further exploration of criterion validity demonstrated consistent results with existing literature, revealing negative correlations between the IFF scores and romantic attachment anxiety, avoidance, and the severity of depressive symptoms. Notably, the IFF scores for mothers were significantly higher than those for fathers.
Conclusion
These findings are discussed in terms of enhancing future applications of the scale, delving into cross-cultural disparities in emotional experiences, and elucidating distinctions in emotions towards mothers and fathers.
Keywords:
Inventory of Family Feelings, romantic attachment, depressive symptoms, validity, reliability
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