Brief report: Development of a brief scale to assess family support function among Chinese high school students.
OBJECTIVE
To develop a brief family support function scale for Chinese high school students (FSFS-CHSS).


METHODS
Standard procedures for scale development (identification of conceptual model, literature review, item selection and modification using consumer and expert panels and item reduction techniques) were used to develop a 17-item scale. Families of students in 96 high school classes in Hunan were used for item selection and validation. A subset of 4 out of 96 classes was selected as a test-retest sample.


RESULTS
A brief CHSS-FSFS with 17 items was found to have good test-retest and internal consistency reliability (Pearson correlation coefficient: 0.89, P<0.05; Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.87). Three factors were extracted using factor analysis, accounting for 48% of total variation. Comparison of CHSS-FSFS score between healthy and unhealthy families was statistically significant, t=7.58, P<0.01.


CONCLUSIONS
CHSS-FSFS is a reliable and valid tool for family support function assessment.
Hu
Guoqing
G
Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Road, Changsha, Hunan 410078, China. huguoqing009@gmail.com
Sun
Zhenqiu
Z
Hu
Ming
M
Xia
Qiang
Q
Yin
Xunqiang
X
Zheng
Lei
L
Castillo
Renan C
RC
D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011594:Psychometrics; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires