Psychometric testing of an instrument to measure the experience of home

Research related to quality of life in long‐term care has been hampered by a paucity of measurement tools sensitive to environmental interventions. The primary aim of this study was to test the psychometric properties of a new instrument, the Experience of Home (EOH) Scale, designed to measure the strength of the experience of meaningful person‐environment transaction. The instrument was administered to 200 older adults in diverse dwelling types. Principal components analysis provided support for construct validity, eliciting a three‐factor solution accounting for 63.18% of variance in scores. Internal consistency reliability was supported with Cronbach's alpha of .96 for the entire scale. The EOH Scale is a unique research tool to evaluate interventions to improve quality of living in residential environments. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health 30:518–530, 2007