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.