Adaptation of the “Brief Family Relationship Scale” for Measuring Perceived Quality of Family Relationship in the Ethiopian Context

Cohesion; Conflict; Ethiopia; Expressiveness; Family relationships

Authors

  • Galata Sitota
    galatasitota@yahoo.com
    College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Haramaya University, Ethiopia
  • Belay Tefera College of Education and Behavioral Studies, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
April 5, 2022

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Background: Family psychology is in its infancy in Ethiopia mainly because local tools that assist in research and intervention are non-existent. As a result, family issues, which are vital to human development, are understudied in this context.
Objective: This paper presents an adaptation study of the “Brief Family Relationship Scale†(BFRS) that purports to measure perceived quality of family relationship. Three specific issues were addressed in the validation process: establishing scale reliability, identifying the underlying factor structures, and evidence for validity.
Materials and Methods: In the study, a sample of 101 (46 males and 55 females) who are working in government offices in Addis Ababa participated. Procedures involved forward and backward translation of the English version of the Scale into the local (Amharic) language, establishing content validity through expert ratings, administration of the scale to the target groups and then successive validation measures employing “Satisfaction with Family Life Scale†as an anchor variable.
Results: The findings indicated that the full-scale (α = 0.70) as well as the three sub-scales (Cohesion α = 0.86, Expressiveness α = 0.69, and Conflict resolution α = 0.60) have an acceptable reliability index. Validity of the scale was checked through correlation analysis between the anchor variable and Brief Family Relationship Scale (BFRS) yielded a significant value. Exploratory factor analysis has confirmed the three original factor structure of the scale, explaining a total of 48.2% of the variance. Following Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was made to cross-check the obtained three dimensions. The modified index of CFA confirmed that, the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Goodness of Fit Index (GFI) (GFI) and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) are within the desired minimum range. These values suggest that, after the removal of 3 items from the initial 16-items, the previously established domains were confirmed.
Conclusion: It is concluded that the scale has reasonable psychometric properties; as a result, it could be useful for studies and interventions for family relationship issues in Ethiopian context. A further adaption process could be done on adolescents to make the scale valid for other age groups.