Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Hospitals and policymakers acknowledge the importance of the family in
improved healthcare outcomes. Although there has been an increase in policies and
research to bring families into planning, delivery, and evaluation of healthcare, there has
not been a means to assess health-focused perceived support and communication
behaviors. Without a means of assessing these factors, healthcare professionals cannot
succinctly evaluate support and communication in a family system or provide
recommendations for engaging family members in providing beneficial health-focused
support and communication. This study involved the creation of the Inventory for Family
Health-Focused Perceived Support and Communication Behaviors (Family HF-PSCB).
Informed by family systems theory, social support literature, and health communication
behaviors research, this three-phase study consisted of (a) generating items for the Family
HF-PSCB, (b) establishing test-retest reliability, and (c) establishing a factor structure
and convergent validity. Because of the increase of chronic disease in the United States,
the Family HF-PSCB was created and tested with samples of individuals having chronic
disease(s).
Using a mixed methods approach, in-depth interviews with 12 participants
generated 91 items for psychometric analysis. These items were tested through expert
content review, and in pilot testing (n = 23), the remaining 84 items demonstrated test-
retest and internal reliability. Through factor analysis (n = 209), two factors emerged to
explain 72.1% of the variance. The final Family HF-PSCB contains 13 items, which
indicates an individual’s perception of family health-focused support and communication
behaviors. The factor explaining 63.2% of the variance has 8 items demonstrating healthfocused
communication behaviors, and the second factor has 5 items demonstrating
health-focused instrumental support. The developed scale suggests that family healthfocused
communication behaviors may be a more explanatory variable in the family
system for someone with chronic disease(s). The 13-item Family HF-PSCB demonstrates
convergent validity through significant correlations with the Perceived Social Support
Family Scale and the General Functioning Scale of the McMaster Family Assessment
Device. Future studies should explore the correlation of the Family HF-PSCB with health
outcomes attributed to symptom management in populations of chronic disease patients.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:IUPUI/oai:scholarworks.iupui.edu:1805/19947 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | Harsin, Amanda M. |
| Contributors | Brann, Maria, Head, Katharine J., Bute, Jennifer J., Rawl, Susan M. |
| Source Sets | Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
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