Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of the Family Empowerment Scale

The aim of the current research was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Family Empowerment Scale in families with children suffering from hyperactivity/attention deficit, autism spectrum and specific learning disorders. A total of 210 parents of exceptional children with the training settings from educational region 1 and 2 in Ahvaz city were selected using based-purpose and voluntary sampling method and responded to the Family Empowerment and Marital Satisfaction scales. The data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and statistical software SPSS-21. The findings revealed that the scale consisted of three factors - empowerment with respect to family system, service system and social/politics system. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients obtained 0.94 for the whole scale and ranged from 0.91 to 0.93 for the three factors, test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.86 and showed the convergent validity coefficient of 0.31 (P<0.001) between the current scale and the Marital Satisfaction Scale. According to the results from this scale it can be used as an appropriate tool for measuring the ability of the parents to give services to their children with hyperactivity/attention deficit, autism spectrum and specific learning in exceptional rehabilitation settings and for identifying and explaining antecedents and consequences of this type of disorders.