Investigation of the validity and reliability of the Dark Future Scale in mothers of children with intellectual disability

Introduction: Future anxiety is an attitude toward the future with negative emotions and cognition, which is frequently seen in parents of children with mental and physical disorders. It is the basis for most mental and physical disorders. So, early diagnosis can cause prevention and treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the dark future scale in mothers of children with intellectual disabilities. Materials and Methods: This survey study was a cross-sectional and validation study. Sampling was done by random sampling. So, 196 mothers among mothers of children with intellectual disabilities who were studying in special schools in 2019 in Isfahan city, and 109 mothers of normal children were selected and filled out the questionnaire. Content validity, convergent validity, correlation of items with the total score (material analysis), criterion validity and construct validity, test-retest reliability, split-half reliability, and internal consistency were used. Data analyzed through SPSS-24 and AMOS-18 software. Results: The results showed that the content validity was validated, 0.65 for convergent validity, 0.31-0.74 (P< 0.01) for material analysis, significant criterion validity, 0.58 -0.78 (P< 0.001) for construct validity, and test-retest reliability, split-half reliability and internal consistency respectively were 0.70, 0.64 and 0.71. Conclusion: According to the results, the dark future scale is a short tool with significant validity and reliability to measure future anxiety in mothers of children with intellectual disability.