Measuring perceived parental sacrifice among adolescents in Hong Kong : confirmatory factor analyses of the Chinese parental sacrifice scale

Abstract

Based on a sample of 373 Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong, the dimensionality of the 23-item Chinese Parental Sacrifice Scale and measurement invariance across perceived paternal and maternal attributes from the perception of adolescents were examined. Confirmatory factor analysis provided support for the hypothesized dimensions of the measure (striving for family resources, time spent on children’s education, restructuring of daily routine, sacrifice of lifestyles and aspirations, shielding of worries). Results also showed that the related measures of adolescents’ perceived parental sacrifice were equivalent in terms of model structure, factor loadings, intercepts of measured variable and factor variance-covariance across the paternal and maternal versions. Hence, the Chinese Parental Sacrifice Scale can be regarded as an objective measure assessing perceived parental sacrifice with high factorial validity and measurement equivalence that can be used by family practitioners working with Chinese adolescents.