Development of Familial Role Identification Scale for Adolescents with Perceived Parental Disharmony

Abstract

Family plays a pivotal role in the growth and development of the individual and disharmony brings significant distress among family members. To deal with this distress, the family member may seek sources of support to assist in the copying process. An adaptive attitude that leads to this behaviour may result in the adoption of certain roles. In the current study, a standardized assessment measure, that is, The Familial Role Identification Scale for Adolescents (FRIS) was developed to identify these roles. In the development phases of the study (Phase I and Phase II), 40 items were formulated through interviews using open-ended questions and tested for narrative ambiguities. In the main study, FRIS was administered to 390 participants (Boys = 191; Girls = 199) with the age range of 10 to 18 years (M = 14.70; SD = 1.20). Concurrent Validity was examined by using the Role Identification Scale for Children (Samuel et al., 2014). Exploratory Factor Analysis with Varimax Rotation was used to analyze the items and form a factorial structure, that yielded 3 factors indicating different roles adopted by adolescents as Hero, Withdrawal and Mascot with acceptable psychometric properties. Cultural context implications of the results were discussed.