PSYCHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE FAMILY EMPOWERMENT SCALE

The Family Empowerment Scale (FES), a 34-item racing scale, was develo ped to measure empowerment in families with children who have emotiona l, behavioral, or mental disorders. This study investigated the psycho metric characteristics oi the FES in a sample of 228 families whose ch ildren had serious emotional disturbance or attention-deficit/hyperact ivity disorder. The families rated each item on a 5-point Likert-type rating scale, and the ratings were subjected to a number of psychometr ic analyses. The results of factor analyses, with varimax rotation, pr ovided a conceptually meaningful four-factor solution. Congruence betw een the four factors derived in this study and the corresponding facto rs in the original FES psychometric analysis was high, with congruence coefficients ranging between .88 and .98. Obtained internal consisten cy estimates of reliability ranged from .78 to .89 for the four subsca les, and the split-half estimate of reliability for the FES was .93. T he results indicate thar the FES has robust psychometric properties an d may be useful in assessing the empowerment status of families whose children are handicapped.