AUTHOR=Margherita Giorgia , Gargiulo Anna , Troisi Gina , Tessitore Francesca , Kapusta Nestor D.
TITLE=Italian Validation of the Capacity to Love Inventory: Preliminary Results
JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology
VOLUME=9
YEAR=2018
URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01434
DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01434
ISSN=1664-1078
ABSTRACT=Introduction: Within a wider international research project aimed at operationalize the psychodynamic construct of capacity to love (Kernberg, 2011), the Capacity to Love Inventory (CTL-I) is a 41-items self-report questionnaire assessing six dimensions: interest in the life project of the other, basic trust, gratitude, common ego ideal, permanence of sexual passion, loss, and mourning.
Objectives: The study is aimed at validating the Italian version of the CTL-I.
Method: A total sample of 736 Italian non-clinical adults was administered a checklist assessing socio-demographic variables, and the CTL-I. A Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) was conducted to examine the construct validity of the Italian version of the CTL-I. Only a part of the total sample (320 participants) was administered an additional series of concurrent measures in order to investigate the convergent validity of the CTL-I. Correlations with measures of socio-sexual orientation, quality of romance relations, and psychopathological questionnaires were examined through Pearson's correlation coefficients.
Results: CFA results suggested that the Italian CTL-I fully replicated the six-factor structure of the original CTL-I. Cronbach's alpha index provided satisfactory results for all subscales and the correlations with concurrent measures were in expected direction.
Conclusion: The results showed promising psychometric characteristics of the Italian version of CTL-I. Implications of the feasibility of the instrument in clinical and psychotherapeutic settings are discussed.