The Measurement and Preliminary Application of the Concept of Family Centrality

Abstract

Family centrality refers to value judgment regarding the relative importance of family in an individual’s life. In contrast to bidirectional research in the field of work-family relationships, much work had been done about the work centrality, whereas few works of research discussed family centrality as an independent concept. Thus, the present study systematically discussed the concept of family centrality in Chinese culture and the preliminary validation of its measurement through two cross-sectional studies. In study 1, questionnaires were distributed to two sub-samples through convenient sampling; one included 185 participants (mean age of 35.51 ± 10.30) and other included 189 participants (mean age of 31.39 ± 6.82). In study 2, through convenient sampling, questionnaires were distributed to 351 participants with a mean age of 35.15 (SD = 9.44) years. Results of Study 1 supported that the Family Centrality Questionnaire (FCQ) has a single-factor structure with good reliability and validity. Additionally, family centrality and work centrality are two independent concepts that can be distinguished on conceptional and applicational levels. Results of Study 2 showed that family centrality had an indirect effect on life wellbeing through life involvement (β = 0.073, 95% CI [0.032, 0128]), and work centrality had an indirect effect on work wellbeing through work involvement (β = 0.089, 95% CI [0.046, 0.142]). Further, family centrality had a spillover effect on work wellbeing through work involvement (β = −0.079, 95% CI [−0.125, −0.42]), and work centrality has a spillover effect on life wellbeing through family involvement (β = −0.053, 95% CI [−0.095, −0.22]). Overall, the results showed that the FCQ can be used as a scientific measurement for future research.