Psychometric Analysis of the Family Empowerment Scale

The Family Empowerment Scale (FES), a 34-item rating scale, was developed to measure empowerment in families with children who have emotional, behavioral, or mental disorders. This study investigated the psychometric characteristics of the FES in a sample of 228 families whose children had serious emotional disturbance or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The families rated each item on a 5-point Likert-type rating scale, and the ratings were subjected to a number of psychometric analyses. The results of factor analyses, with varimax rotation, provided a conceptually meaningful four-factor solution. Congruence between the four factors derived in this study and the corresponding factors in the original FES psychometric analysis was high, with congruence coefficients ranging between .88 and .98. Obtained internal consistency estimates of reliability ranged from .78 to .89 for the four subscales, and the split-half estimate of reliability for the FES was .93. The results indicate that the FES has robust psychometric properties and may be useful in assessing the empowerment status of families whose children are handicapped.