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The Parental Cancer Questionnaire: scale structure, reliability, and validity

Supportive Care in Cancer volume 22, pages 23–32 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to determine the principal component structure of the Parental Cancer Questionnaire (PCQ) in a sample of adult children whose parents had cancer and to illustrate the validity and reliability of subscales.

Method

The PCQ was administered to 311 adult children of parents with cancer along with the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, Carer's Assessment of Difficulties Scale, Carer's Assessment of Satisfactions Scale, Reaction to Diagnosis of Cancer Questionnaire, and the Grief Diagnostic Instrument.

Results

Exploratory Principal Components Analysis identified three dimensions of the parental cancer experience (explaining 51 % of the variance amongst scale items). The components were parental cancer benefits (e.g. ‘I became closer to my sick parent during his/her cancer.’), emotional experiences (e.g. ‘I was devastated by my parent's cancer.’), and caregiver strain (e.g. ‘I feel/felt there was nobody to assist or support me in caring for my parent.’). Convergent and discriminant validity were demonstrated by meaningful correlations with other related measures (ranging from 0.14 to 0.68), and strong internal reliability was shown with Cronbach α between 0.87 and 0.91.

Conclusions

The PCQ has a clear three-component structure and demonstrates good reliability. The measure has excellent face, content, convergent, and discriminant validity, indicating a structure suitable for use in future research. The measure appears to be a useful measure of the experience of parental cancer for adult children.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Kent Patrick, Phillip Chittleborough, and Carmen Moran for their thoughtful contributions to the study.

Conflict of interest

The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article. The authors retain full control of the primary data and agree to allow the Supportive Care in Cancer to review the data, if required.

Author information

Affiliations

  1. University of New South Wales – South Western Sydney Clinical School, Liverpool Hospital, Locked Bag 7103, Liverpool BC, NSW, 1871, Australia

    Janelle V. Levesque

  2. Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, PO Box 3151, (Westfields Liverpool), Liverpool, NSW, 2170, Australia

    Janelle V. Levesque

  3. Translational Cancer Research Unit – Psycho-Oncology Research Group, Ingham Institute, Liverpool Hospital, Locked Bag 7103, Liverpool BC, NSW, 1871, Australia

    Janelle V. Levesque

  4. Department of Rural and Indigenous Health, School of Rural Health, Monash University, 3 Ollerton Avenue, Moe, 3825, Australia

    Darryl J. Maybery

Authors
  1. Janelle V. Levesque
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  2. Darryl J. Maybery
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Janelle V. Levesque.

Additional information

This research study was completed while Janelle Levesque was affiliated with the School of Psychology, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia.

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Cite this article

Levesque, J.V., Maybery, D.J. The Parental Cancer Questionnaire: scale structure, reliability, and validity. Support Care Cancer 22, 23–32 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-013-1935-z

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Keywords

  • Parental cancer
  • Psycho-oncology
  • Benefit finding
  • Scale development
  • Emotions
  • Caregiving