The family-couple-parenting questionnaire: Development of a measure for long-term couples and young adults

This work describes the construction of family-couple-parenting (FCP) questionnaire, a new measure of three aspects related to the developmental path toward parenting choices, within the perspective of the family life cycle and attachment theory. Two studies are reported. Study 1 reports the development of the FCP questionnaire and its psychometric properties. Study 2 assesses the FCP’s nomological validity by investigating group differences on FCP factors and links between FCP factors and romantic attachment (experience in close relationships-revised) and recalled parental bonding (parental bonding instrument). Participants were 791 Italian participants: 405 young adults (203 students, 202 workers) and 193 couples (91 childless-by-choice, 102 parents-to-be). The results suggest that the FCP’s stable psychometric structure and strong theoretical basis make FCP a useful instrument for research related to the path to parenthood.