Development and Validation of a Family Participation Scale for School Education

Abstract

This article presents the creation and validation of a scale designed to measure family participation in school education. Recent research has highlighted  the challenges that schools face in establishing  effective relationships between families and the educational institution, often resulting  in low engagement and ineffective communication. Furthermore, the absence of valid tools  for assessing family participation and guiding interventions in this domain has been identified. A set of indicators categorized into three dimensions has been developed: support in education from home, democratic participation, and communication with the school, drawing from various models of family participation. These indicators underwent content validity evaluation with input from thirteen academic experts. Subsequently, the instrument was applied to a sample of 308 parents from a public school to assess its reliability and construct validity. The results indicate that the scale is suitable for use in the context of primary education in Chile and aligns with  the initial theoretical framework, rendering it ready for application in the context of Chilean primary education.