Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Aug 25;10(8):7185-7195.
doi: 10.19082/7185. eCollection 2018 Aug.

Validation of the Family Stability Questionnaire in married couples: a confirmatory factor analysis

Zahra Pourmovahed  1 , Hassan Zareei Mahmoodabadi  2 , Seyed Mojtaba Yassini Ardekani  3 , Hossein Fallahzadeh  4 , Hossein Tavangar  5 , Seyed Saied Mazloomy Mahmoodabad  6
Affiliations

Validation of the Family Stability Questionnaire in married couples: a confirmatory factor analysis

Zahra Pourmovahed et al. Electron Physician. .

Abstract

Background: Marital conflicts and divorce are among the most crucial problems of society. Therefore, it is important to maintain family stability at the optimal level in order to prevent divorce and its consequences in the family and community.

Objective: This study was conducted to design and validate the Family Stability Questionnaire (FSQ) in married couples.

Methods: This study was the second stage of a large study. The FSQ was constructed based on a qualitative research in our previous study in 2016. It was developed through interviews by family therapists, psychiatrists, and couples on 10 dimensions (areas) and was based on McMaster's Family Assessment Device (FAD). Then, in the present study, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on 270 males and females (135 couples) of Yazd City (Iran) from January to May 2017. The construct validity and reliability of the scales were examined using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA) and Cronbach's alpha coefficient, respectively. Test-retest reliability was assessed with intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) for the agreement between the individual items and domains. SPSS 21 and AMOS 21 were used for statistical analyses (p≤0.05).

Results: At first, the results of the CFA on 70 items of FSQ could not confirm (RMSEA=0.06, CFI=0.91, GFI=0.72), but FSQ with 56 questions indicated that it had sufficiently high validity and reliability to measure family stability (RMSEA=0.04, CFI=0.95, GFI=0.96) with an acceptable fit index. A positive significant correlation was observed between the FSQ and FAD (r=0.45, p<0.001) indicating that FSQ has convergent validity. The Cronbach's alpha and ICC of more than 0.7 in 10 domains of this tool indicated a good internal consistency among the items and their high relevance (0.90 and 0.84, respectively).

Conclusion: FSQ, as a multi-dimensional questionnaire, is a useful and reliable instrument to assess family stability. It consists of ten factors, which were constructed for the first time in Iran. Given the proper features, this instrument can be utilized to carry out more research regarding family stability in Iranian populations.

Keywords: Factor analysis; Family health; Surveys and questionnaires; Validation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: There is no conflict of interest to be declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The structural model of family stability (final output of AMOS software)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Callan S. Building a strong society requires effective family policy. DIFI Family Research and Proceedings. 2014:1. doi: 10.5339/difi.2014.1. - DOI
    1. Sadeghi M, Fatehizadeh M, Ahmadi A, Bahrami F, Etemadi O. Developing a model of healthy family based on an Explorative Mixed Method Research. Family Psychology. 2014;1(1):29–40.
    1. Barney MC, Max JE. The McMaster family assessment device and clinical rating scale: Questionnaire vs interview in childhood traumatic brain injury. Brain Inj. 2005;19(10):801–9. doi: 10.1080/02699050400024961. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mahmoudian H, Khodamoradi H. Investigating the relationship of socio economic progress and divorce rate among cities in 2006. Social Security Studies. 2006;(23):13–41.
    1. Cavanagh S, Huston A. Family instability and children’s early problem behavior. Social Forces. 2006;85(1):551–81. doi: 10.1353/sof.2006.0120. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources