Brazilian Version of the Coparenting Relationship Scale: Reliability and Validity Evidence

Abstract: The coparenting relationship plays a central role in family interactions. However, Brazil lacks information on the psychometric properties of internationally recognized instruments to assess coparenting. Escala da Relação Coparental (CRS-BR) is the Brazilian version of the Coparenting Relationship Scale. In this study, we examine: (a) internal validity evidence of the CRS-BR based on confirmatory factor analysis and gender invariance tests; (b) reliability evidence of each instrument factor, and (c) external validity evidence based on discriminant validity and correlations with measures of theoretically-related constructs. Participants included 238 mothers and 195 fathers with children aged up to 6 years of age. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a good fit for the Brazilian participants using the same six factors that showed satisfactory reliability levels for North American parents. Additionally, we found evidence for configural, metric and scalar invariance regarding the parents’ gender. The six CRS-BR subscales demonstrated acceptable reliability. As for evidence of discriminant validity, only two CRS-BR factors (undermining and conflict) exhibited higher than expected correlations with father’s social desirability scores. Consistent with the literature, we found some correlations between coparenting and child adjustment. Our results offer substantial support for contemporary coparenting theories and indicate that the CRS-BR can be used with Brazilian parents of children up to six years old, thus facilitating the integration of Brazilian findings with international work on coparenting.