Development of a Family Dynamic Environment Scale for Korean Adolescents

Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop a short and reliable Family Dynamic Environment Scale (FDES) that would better serve the needs of mental health professionals in detecting the potential for delinquent behavior in Korean adolescents related to a dysfunctional family dynamic environment. Semi-structured interviews with 30 adolescents were initially conducted to generate a set of items, after which, 44 participants were included in method test-retest reliability test. Finally, 544 participants recruited by proportional stratified random sampling were included in a factor analysis. The original version of the FDES had 60 items in 7 categories; the final version included 42 items grouped into 5 factors. Both test-retest reliability and Cronbach's alpha coefficient were high for the final version of the scale. As a result of factor analysis, five factors were extracted: family psychological climate, parent-child relationship, paternal parenting attitude, family cohesion, and maternal parenting attitude. These contributed 50.3% of the variance in the item scores. All 42 items loaded above .35 on their respective factors. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for internal consistency were .95 for the total 42 items and .92, .81, .82, .78, and .71, respectively, for each of the 5 factors.