Developing a Family Needs Scale

Abstract

The aim of the study was to develop a family need scale for Iranian families. The study was administered in two stags. In pilot study 50 families were interviewed to list their needs. Based on collected data in pilot study, a scale with 45 items was design. The scale was filled out by 250 families in second stage (the main stag). To check the factor structure of the family need scale, principle factor analysis was used. The results of the analysis revealed that there are seven factors in the scale. These factors named economic need, kindness need, social security need, financial need, educational need, welfare need, and psychological need. To check the internal consistency and reliability of the scale the alpha coefficient and test-retest reliability was used. Bout of the indexes showed that the family needs scale is a reliable scale to assess the family needs. Also the study showed that the family needs scale has a high convergent validity. In sum, the study revealed that the family needs scale is efficient in reliability and validity to sue for Iranian families.