Development of Adler Birth Order Scale

Abstract

The present study was aimed to assess birth order theory proposed by Adler (1928) among college to university aged students in Pakistan. For this, two studies were carried out. In Study 1, Adler Birth Order Scale was developed to measure personality traits associated with birth order. After literature review, items were generated, translated, and content validity index was established followed by a pilot study. Further, construct validity was established with a sample of 400 participants (with equal gender distribution), with age range 19-25 years in Lahore. Exploratory Factor Analysis resulted in 50 items with eight core traits including deviant, conscientious, pampered, social interest, parental attention, self-centered, neurotic, and competitive. The Scale showed a relatively high reliability, with adequate range of reliability for subscales. In Study 2, Confirmatory Factory Analysis was computed on an independent sample of 400 participants (men = 198, women = 202), with age range 19-25 years and results revealed a good model fit to the data, validating the eight-factor structure of the scale, established through EFA earlier. However, 11 items receiving low factor loadings were omitted from different subscales, thus, 39 items were retained for the final version of Adler Birth Order Scale with higher Cronbach alpha. 90. Use of this scale was discussed for clinical practice.