Coping with late-life challenges: Development and validation of the care-receiver efficacy scale

Measures are lacking that address the challenges that people think they face in their roles as elderly care receivers. However, the development of a sense of efficacy in this role by mentally competent care receivers is critical to successful partnerships between caregivers and care receivers. The purpose of this article is to report the development and psychometric analysis of the Care-Receiver Efficacy Scale (CRES).

Content validity, internal consistency reliability, factor structure, and convergent validity were assessed through a pilot study, expert review, and field administration with 177 participants.

Results suggest that the CRES comprises five subscales, with strong reliability evidenced for three subscales but marginal reliability for the remaining two. Strong support was found for content validity from expert review and moderate support from the relationship between empirical and expert judgment of item location. Support for validity also was found from correlation with the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form and the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale.

The CRES may be useful as an outcome measure for psycho-socio-behavioral interventions aimed at increasing the capacity of care receivers to direct and improve their own care. Future measure revision and validation are important to optimize its utility.