Familism Scale: Confirmatory Factor Analysis in a Sample of Caregivers of Older Adults

Abstract

The objective of this study was to translate and confirm the factor structure of the Familism Scale in the Brazilian Portuguese version. The sample included 716 Brazilian caregivers providing care to their own aging parents with Alzheimer’s Disease. The measures included the Familism Scale, the Filial Obligation Scale, the Life Satisfaction scale and the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale (CES-D). The questionnaire was individually filled online with use of the survey software package Qualtrics. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to examine the factor structure. The modified model demonstrated adequate fit (RMSEA = .063, CFI = .912). The hypotheses concerning convergence and divergence of validity from relevant variables were corroborated. These results support the use of the modified Familism Scale including twelve items and two factors with acceptable psychometric properties in a sample of Brazilian caregivers with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Relationship between filial obligation and caregiver depression among adult children: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Percentages of female caregivers in the studies were between 64.12% and 100%, with two studies comprising 100% females (Kim & Lee, 2003 ; Raveis et al, 1998 ). Half of the six studies were conducted in the Chinese context (Liu et al, 2019 ; Pan et al, 2017 ; Zhan, 2006 ), while the other half were conducted in the U.S. (Raveis et al, 1998 ), Brazil (Falcao et al, 2019 ), and Korea (Kim & Lee, 2003 ; Table 1 ).…”

“…Most studies employed culture‐specific tools of filial obligation, except for Liu et al ( 2019 ), who used Gallois et al's ( 1996 ) transcultural tool. Specifically, Falcao et al ( 2019 ) adopted Cicirelli's ( 1993 ) 7‐item Filial Obligation Scale that was derived from Americans; Kim and Lee ( 2003 ) selected Seelbach and Sauer's ( 1977 ) 5‐item Filial Obligation Tool validated among Koreans; and Pan et al ( 2017 ) applied an integrated tool of filial obligation. Moreover, the psychometrics of these tools generally showed modest satisfaction.…”

“…Moreover, the limited number of studies may have accounted for the non‐significant effect size of r between the variables under study. This meta‐analysis included only two studies with non‐significant r s: Falcao et al's ( 2019 ) study with a relatively larger sample of Brazilian caregivers played a decisive role in the overall non‐significant effect size. Many studies have shown evidence that, similar to Asians or Latin Americans, filial performance is duty‐based among Brazilian adult children (Mureşan & Hărăguş, 2015 ).…”

“…Appraisal differences between reviewers were resolved through consensus. Of note, the article by Falcao et al ( 2019 ) was included because the study provided full descriptions of filial obligation and caregiver depression in their concept, validity, reliability and Pearson's correlation ( r ), despite it focusing on a tool development of familism. Additionally, the article by Liu et al ( 2019 ) was included in the qualitative analysis as the purpose of the study and the nature of statistical analysis focused on the association between filial performance and caregiver depression, although an incidence rate ratio was achieved using negative binomial regression due to the skewed distribution of depression scores.…”

“…Half of the six studies were conducted in the Chinese context (Liu et al, 2019;Pan et al, 2017;Zhan, 2006), while the other half were conducted in the U.S. (Raveis et al, 1998), Brazil (Falcao et al, 2019), and Korea (Kim & Lee, 2003; Table 1).…”