The purpose of this methological study to development of the care burden scale for family of elderly in nursing facilities and to verify the validity and reliability of the instrument.
In this study, construct factors were extracted and a conceptual framework was established by examining of a broad range of past studies and reflectived experience of care burden for family of elderly in nursing facilities based on Pearlin''s (1990) construct of stress process model.
Under the conceptual framework, 38 preliminary items were constructed and a preliminary scale of 38 items was completed after two rounds of expert validation and item review. For this study, data were collected from 208 family of elderly in nursing facilities and the construct validity and reliability of the preliminary scale were verified. To verify the construct validity, exploratory factor analysis was conducted. A total of 4 factors containing 30 items were extracted. The Cronbach''s alpha value of all 30 items of the developed measurement scale was .94, therefore, the internal consistency was established. Therefore, the validity and reliability of the scale were verified.
The final scale comprises 4 factors and 30 items. Factor 1 was named ''Social burden’, Factor 2 is ‘Economic burden’, Factor 3 is ‘Psychological burden’, and Factor 4 is ‘Physical burden’.
In conclusion, the scale for measuring care burden for family of elderly in nursing facilities developed in this study validly reflected the peculiarities of family of elderly in nursing facilities, who experience Social, Economic, and Psychological, Physical burden changes. The scale can be said to reflect the cultural background and reality of Korea, as it reflected real experiences gained through with family of elderly in nursing facilities in Korea.
Therefore, it is expected to be used in future research on nursing intervention aimed at improving the understanding of caring burden and reducing caring burden of elderly family members in nursing facilities.