The Validity and Reliability Study of The Caregiver-Child Reminiscence Scale: Reminiscence Functions of Turkish Parents

Objectives: Parents talk to their children about memories of shared/unshared past, and these conversations are referred to as parental reminiscing. Parental reminiscing contributes significantly to varied developmental areas such as autobiographical memory, language, social, and sense of self. There are a limited number of measuring tools to determine reminiscence functions, that is, what purposes parents talk to their children about the past. The main purpose of this study is to adapt the Caregiver-Child Reminiscence Scale (CRS), which allows the scrutinization of the functions of parental reminiscing, to Turkish language and culture and, thus, to contribute to studies investigating cultural differences. Materials and Methods: The sample included 507 parents with children aged 2-6 years. The Caregiver-Child Reminiscence Scale is a 7-point Likert-type forty-item scale. It has seven sub-scales as Conversations, Relationship Maintenance, Behavioral Control, Teaching/Problem Solving, Emotion Regulation, Self-Functions, and Cognitive Skills. Results: The Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients range between .88-.99. for the sub-scales in this study. The descriptive analyses suggested that the parents aged 29 years and under did reminiscing to provide more behavioral control than those aged between 30-39 years. The participating mothers were reminiscing for maintaining the relationship, teaching/problem solving, emotion-regulation, and self-functions. Parents with high-school or less education were reminiscing more to achieve behavioral control than parents with undergraduate or postgraduate education. Conclusion: The CRS was found to be a valid and reliable for the Turkish culture. It is believed that it will allow intercultural studies in this field.