THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN AUTONOMY SCALE

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable instrume nt to measure four areas of autonomy. The instrument is composed of fo ur subscales that measure the following constructs of autonomy: (a) fa mily loyalty autonomy, (b) value autonomy, (c) emotional autonomy, and (d) behavioral autonomy. A detailed four-step procedure was used to p rovide the scale with construct, content, and predictive validity. Pre sented here is the four-stage process used to develop the Autonomy Sca le, data supporting the validity and reliability of the scale, and the final version of the instrument.