Development and initial validation of the Parent-Child War-Dialogue Scale (PACWAD).

Abstract

Objective: This study introduces the Parent-Child War-Dialogue Scale, which assesses parents' dialogue style, content, and frequency in the context of coexperienced ongoing war.

Method: We employed an iterative, systematic mixed methods approach to scale development, including item generation guided by a literature review, expert review, qualitative analysis of open-ended questions, and a test pilot with 137 Israeli caregivers during an ongoing war. This was followed by creating an improved version of the Parent-Child War-Dialogue Scale and a second survey with 372 caregivers of children aged 6-12 years to assess its psychometric properties.

Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a three-factor model of war-related dialogue styles: modulated disclosure, silencing, and unfiltered speech. This structure demonstrated strong psychometric properties, including acceptable-to-good internal consistency for all subscales, robust convergent validity with theoretically related measures of parent-child communication, and significant correlations with the dialogue content scales and parental perceived stress.

Conclusions: The Parent-Child War-Dialogue Scale is a feasible measure that promotes a more comprehensive and detailed understanding of parent-child conversations about war and supports further exploration of their contribution to children's adjustment during wartime. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).