Re-examining Family Communication Pattern: The Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the model for Revised Family Communication Pattern (RFCP) can be used to measure the communication patterns within a family.Methodology: A survey questionnaire was administered to 500 respondents but only 380 of them were deemed useable. Prior to this, a pilot study was undertaken in which an internal alpha procedure was conducted to determine the reliability of the variables for this study. Similarly, the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was also performed to confirm the factor structure so that variables with low factor loading could be excluded. On the other hand, the variable with highest factor loading was identified and then rigorously explained in regard to this model.Results: More than 50% of the respondents had agreed with the item B9 of the conversation orientation and B17 of the conformity orientation thus, indicating that the model is useful in measuring the communication patterns within a family after omitting several effect indicators that had severe negative impact on estimation.Implications: When the value of factor loading of a variable is low, fitting the variable in the model will result in the model becoming a misfit that ends with a discussion about the underlying factor structure that is fruitless. This study is particularly useful for practitioners who need to identify variables that are suitable for research on family communication. Besides that, this paper also provides valuable reference for researchers to consider the adoption of RFCP based on conversation and conformity orientations in Malaysia.