The development of a family cohesion scale: A preliminary validation

Abstract

Family is said to be an important agent for the socio-emotional development and growth of an individual. The existing research finds out the manifestation and expression of family cohesion among adolescents in the Pakistani cultural context. In phase I, a phenomenological approach was used to elicit the key characteristics of family cohesion from 30 adolescents followed by phase II, the establishment of content validity index, and phase III of pilot testing on 20 participants to check comprehension of the scale. In the last phase, 785 adolescents (Girls = 49%; Boys = 51%) were selected to determine the psychometric properties of the Family Cohesion Scale (FCS). Factor analysis yielded four factors of family cohesion namely mutual support, sharing, parental involvement, and emotional bonding. Furthermore, results also depicted high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, split-half reliability, and construct validity. The factors of family cohesion are discussed by considering the collectivistic cultural context of Pakistan.