Construct validity and internal consistency of the Home and Family Work Roles Questionnaires: a cross-sectional study...

Area of Science:

• Psychometrics
• Sociology
• Family Studies

Background:

• The Home and Family Work Roles Questionnaire is used to assess perceptions of domestic responsibilities.
• Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) has not previously been applied to this questionnaire to validate its underlying structure.
• Understanding the factor structure is crucial for accurate measurement of constructs related to home and family roles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify the latent factors measured by the Home and Family Work Roles Questionnaire using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA).
• To determine the psychometric properties and internal consistency of the identified factors.
• To provide empirical evidence for the construct validity of the questionnaire.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 314 participants to complete the Home and Family Work Roles Questionnaire and demographic questions.
• Performed EFA using the Factor package in Jamovi, employing Oblimin rotation and Principal Axis extraction.
• Assessed data factorability using Bartlett's test of sphericity and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure; calculated Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency.

Main Results:

• EFA identified a three-factor structure for the questionnaire.
• The factors were interpreted as 'Caregiving Roles' (items 11, 13-16), 'Traditionally Feminine Roles' (items 1, 3, 4, 8-10, 18, 19), and 'Traditionally Masculine Roles' (items 2, 5, 6, 12).
• The questionnaire and its subscales demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α > 0.90).

Conclusions:

• The Home and Family Work Roles Questionnaire effectively measures three distinct constructs: Caregiving, Traditionally Feminine, and Traditionally Masculine Roles.
• The findings support the theoretical framework underpinning the questionnaire's development.
• Recommends using the questionnaire with distinct sub-scale scores for measuring these specific constructs.