A New Italian Standardization of the FACES-IV in an Adult Population

Abstract

This study presents the new standardization of the Italian version of the FACES IV questionnaire (Olson, 2011) in an adult population. The aim is to promote its use in epidemiological studies, to evaluate the familial influence on medical, psychological, and psychiatric treatments, and the effectiveness of family and couple psychotherapies. Results were obtained through an initial phase of exploring the scale's structure using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) techniques, followed by correlation analyses and the identification and discussion of family typologies based on Olson's model. Validation analysis revealed an acceptable overall factor structure and good internal consistency. However, some critical issues were identified, consistent with previous studies conducted on international samples. Specifically, the rigidity area presented less than fully sufficient fit indices during confirmatory analysis and modest construct validity. Despite these limitations, which could be due to item comprehension or the cultural nature of the rigidity dimension, this version of the questionnaire aligns more closely with the model's hypotheses compared to previous versions, contributing to capturing the curvilinearity and complexity of family systems.