Author(s)

Junko Honda¹, Naohiro Hohashi^1*, Sharron Kam Leung²

¹Division of Family Health Care Nursing, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan.
²School of Nursing, Hong Kong Baptist Hospital, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.

This study, in which 519 child-rearing families in Hong Kong participated, examined the reliability and validity of Chinese-language version of the Survey of Family Environment (SFE-C). The SFE-C is a self-administered questionnaire containing 30 items that examines family functioning and family support needs. It is designed to yield an instrument satisfaction score (SS score: family functioning score). Internal consistency was estimated at 0.92 (Cronbach’s alpha for SS scores). In a test-retest study of 33 families, the correlation coefficient for families’ mean SS score over a two-week period was 0.93, indicating high test-retest reliability. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis using the Concentric Sphere Family Environment Theory indicated that the SFE-C’s structure included seven factors, thereby supporting the SFE-C’s construct validity. The SFE-C demonstrates good reliability and validity and may be used to evaluate Chinese families’ functioning.

Survey of Family Environment (SFE), Chinese, Instrument Development, Family Functioning, Concentric Sphere Family Environment Theory (CSFET)

Honda, J. , Hohashi, N. and Kam Leung, S. (2016) Reliability and Validity of the Chinese Version of the Survey of Family Environment (SFE). Open Journal of Nursing, 6, 820-832. doi: 10.4236/ojn.2016.69081.